When I'm Gone
by eiahmon
Summary: Step 1: get keyblade. Step 2: save the universe. It had all seemed so simple to Lea then. Now he has a new goal: save Isa. Easier said than done when no one knows where Isa is, and he has no one to help him search anyway. Or does he? Join Lea as he chases his best friend across the worlds with assistance from an completely unexpected corner. Rating is for Lea's mouth.
1. When I'm Gone

**A/N: So, yeah, I'm not dead! Yays! Anyway, enjoy my newest fic here, one that I wanted to get started before KHIII comes on the scene and josses the hell out of it. This is going to be a slow updater, but I will see it through to its end just like all my other fics.**

 **This fic is a direct sequel to the Heirloom Trilogy ("Heirloom", "Where We Belong", and "Will You Still Love Me?") and takes place in the same universe as "The Birth of Grace" Reading those four fics is not required, but is HIGHLY recommended.  
**

 **It also adhere to "Back Cover" while ignoring many things in Kingdom Heart X. So Laurium and Ventus were not in the Keyblade War, but we still have the events with the Master of Masters, Luxu, and the other Foretellers.**

 **Many thanks to the wonderful Lita_Snow for being a dear and fixing my screw ups.**

 **Oh wait, I'm forgetting something important, aren't I? *clears throat* Kingdom Hearts is the joint property of Square-Enix and Disney. So needless to say, this is not mine and I'm not making any $$$ off of this fanfic.**

 **Enjoy**

 **1.  
When I'm Gone**

 _Dear Isa,_

 _Two years._

 _It's been two years since I saw you last, that day in Where Nothing Gathers. Part of me isn't sure why I'm even writing this. You know reading and writing were never my thing. Remember all the times you had to practically force me to do my homework when we were in school? Yet here I am, writing a letter that you might never see. I really hope it doesn't come to that, but... things aren't looking good right now._

 _They said it was only temporary, that the Council of the Keys only wanted to keep you just long enough to lure Xehanort into a trap. It would be quick, they said._

 _Yeah, well, they lied._

 _Two damned years, Isa! Two years since they said it would be over with quickly! God, I never should have believed them! Of course, what could I have done? Chosen by the keyblade or no, I was once a Nobody, and that makes me suspect in their eyes. Terra's not having any better luck with them either. C'mon, it's not like he asked to be possessed or anything, but nope, they don't like him and said they won't acknowledge his mastery if he gets it from Master Yen Sid or Master Aqua. Possession can only take place in a heart saturated with darkness, they said. Morons._

 _Why do we even have them anyway? With so few keyblade masters left in the worlds, you'd think they wouldn't be so picky about who swings one._

 _They don't trust me because I used to be a Nobody._

 _They don't trust Terra because he was possessed by Xehanort._

 _They don't trust Master Aqua because she spent years in the Realm of Darkness._

 _They don't trust Ventus because he was once used to forge the X-blade._

 _They don't trust Master Yen Sid because he doesn't care what they think._

 _They don't trust Sora because he got his heart shattered and nearly possessed by Xehanort._

 _They don't trust Master Riku because he was possessed by Xehanort, even if it was for only a little while._

 _They don't trust Master Mickey because he helped teach Master Riku._

 _C'mon, it's not like any of those guys listed up there helped save the universe or anything. Oh wait, they_ did _. Silly me, why would I expect the council to be logical or anything? How dare I be so pretentious..._

" _We just need him for bait." they said. "You'll have him home soon." they said._

 _Yen Sid said that the council had been a bunch of stuffed shirts even when he was an apprentice. They'd protested Master Limahl taking in a young Xehanort decades ago since the kid had darkness in his heart or some crap, and now they're using his omnicidal tendencies to push their agenda, whatever that is. They certainly haven't told anyone. Hell, Master Yen Sid admitted that he'd heard from his own master that they'd objected to Master Limahl being taken in as a kid by Master Alexia for the same reason. Apparently having any darkness in your heart means you are unworthy of the keyblade, even if the keyblades themselves think otherwise._

 _As I said before, morons._

 _So enough of that depressing stuff. Let me tell you about the interesting news. How much of this you'll already know is just something I just shrug my shoulders over. I need to write something here, since I can't talk to you in person. We didn't talk much the last few years as Nobodies, but damn, now that you're not around, I'm going insane without having you to talk at._

 _Yes, at. Not to. Because I don't think you were listening to me half the time anyway._

 _No, I'm not crying!_

 _Anyway, on to the interesting stuff!_

 _The first thing I should tell you is that everyone in the Organization is back to normal, hearts and all. Something about destroying the Heart and then the Nobody allows the original person to reform or something. At least, that's what Yen Sid said when I asked him. Not only that, but there's the added bonus of still having all our Nobody powers and control over the Darkness. So I can still set things on fire and fling my chakrams around if I feel the need. I have been warned, though, about using the Darkness, now that I have a heart that can be corrupted again._

 _But wait, there's more! You know all that time I spent hanging out with Roxas and Xion? It was enough for me to – get this – grow a new heart. Crazy, right? When the heart is lost, the body will try to replace it, and the more you actually try to live your life, the faster it will happen. Makes me wonder if that was why Xemnas kept sending us out on pointless missions all the damned time. Can't live a life when you're constantly doing drudge work, after all._

 _And speaking of Xehanort..._

 _So yeah, that big grand plan of his to incite another keyblade war? Yeaaaaah, it hasn't happened. No one knows where the hell he's been since then, and frankly, I don't care. Maybe the old fart had a heart attack during one of his speeches or something. That would be awesome, wouldn't it?_

 _Someone's been doing something though, let me tell you. It's been weird all the things that have been happening since Xehanort was last seen._

 _The first thing was Terra. Yup, possessed by Xehanort just before Xehanort landed in Radiant Garden minus his memories years ago. The memory loss was apparently caused by Xehanort himself or something, but whatever, that's not what's interesting. What's interesting is that Terra just appeared one day in town, unpossessed and in full control of himself. His memories of how he got free are pretty hazy, so he doesn't know how it happened, but Master Yen Sid confirmed that he's completely free of Xehanort's influence. Not only that, but his body appears... new, I guess you could say. All the marks caused by getting into accidents and incidents as a kid are gone, he says. It's like someone cloned him and shoved his heart into it. Even swears it wasn't him._

 _That leads us to the next thing: Aqua. Trapped for years in the Realm of Darkness. One day she just appeared at Yen Sid's tower, again without knowing how she got there. She said a voice called out to her through the darkness, and a hand pulled her to safety. That's all she knows. She returned to Castle Oblivion (Remember that place?), and would you believe it, it used to be completely different. Master Aqua went back there, did something fancy with that Master's Defender that she's got, and turned it back to its original form. It is a nice place; I'll have to take you there for a visit once you're home. Oh, and the thing Xemnas had been obsessed with there? Yeah, it was a kid of all things. Ventus, an apprentice under Master Eraqus along with Aqua and Terra. He'd been hidden away in there, sleeping, ever since he got his heart shattered years ago. So yup, Ven's awake, his heart's in one piece, the Land of Departure is back in action, and Master Aqua is in control of it._

 _Let me tell you, the Council of the Keys is pissed about it – with a capital P. Something about the Land of Departure being an important waypoint in the balance between light and dark, and how they don't believe anyone but themselves should be in control of it. There are bets going around about how long it'll be before they try and take the castle by force. Good luck, says Yen Sid. The castle is ancient and is steeped in protective wards, which are now under Aqua's control. Trying to take the castle from her might end up in some serious messes._

 _Lessee, what else?_

 _Oh yeah, I've seen a few other members of the Organization floating around, former members I should say. Marluxia's actually not quite the pompous prick he was before now that he's got his heart back. He's back in his own world, ruling the place, and we actually shared a few drinks at a tavern near his castle (Does everyone own a castle except for me?). I got the impression that him losing his heart was a good thing for him, and since he still has his Nobody powers like the rest of us, he used it to cow his asshole parents into compliance and stole the throne. Maybe that's where he got that from? He can't hold his booze worth a damn though, I'm pleased to say._

 _And Vexen, that smug asshole. I admit I gave him a nasty death, worse than he deserved to be honest._

 _Okay, far, FAR worse than he deserved._

…

…

 _Alright, fine! He didn't deserve to die at all! There, I admitted it. But what else was I supposed to do? I was only following orders after all. Question: did that order come from you, or from Xehanort?_

 _Anyway, Vexen is back to being Even, and let me tell you, it nearly didn't end well for him. Something went wrong when his complete self reformed, and it left him cold, tired, and too weak to sit up in bed, much less get up and move around. It wasn't looking good for him, and all the people that could fix it – all the people with keyblades – were out looking for Xehanort. So it was looking like Even was going to die not long after getting his heart back, and then one morning, Ienzo (Zexion) finds Even up and wandering the castle, still looking a little tired, but fine. Mickey and Yen Sid are adamant that such a recovery would have needed the skills and magic of a keyblade wielder, but no one with one was responsible._

 _Probably the most interesting change is with Ansem. Yeah, I heard he got himself out of the Realm of Darkness that Xehanort had chucked him in via the Power of Hate (Did you read that with a loud, booming mental voice?) only to end up right back in it when his attempt to encode Kingdom Hearts (Seriously?) literally blew up in his face. (Do you remember that, by chance?) Well, like Aqua, he's out, and he's back in charge of Radiant Garden. The world's almost fully recovered now, another year or two and you won't be able to tell it was ever destroyed. I heard he got over his hatred of Xehanort and the others before his encoder blew up, but everyone still expected him to be pissed as a bear at Xehanort._

 _But he's not._

 _It's really weird. He seems strangely calm over the whole mess, really. He accepted Even and the others back without question, and was even worried about Even's health when he heard about the difficulties he had after reforming. Hell, the portrait of Xehanort, I've been told, is still hanging in his study. You know, the room he rules the world from? So he sees Xehanort's face everyday? I don't get it either. Everyone's confused about it. I mean, why would he want a portrait of the man who betrayed him and wrecked his world in his study, where he can see it everyday? I'd have burned the thing the instant I got a chance myself._

 _He also refuses to appoint a new heir. Yeah, yeah, we all know Xehanort was his adopted son and was the heir apparent, with Even the heir presumptive before that, but you'd think he would have disowned him or something. Or at least nullified the adoption. But nope, I've heard from Ienzo that Xehanort's adoption is still valid, and he's still the heir. Which is just fucked up. I dunno, maybe the old man is grieving for his kid – it's not like his kid stabbed him in the back, killed several of their people, tossed him into the Realm of Darkness, and trashed the world, oh no – but hey, he might need time to get over him! You never know!_

 _Or maybe he's just senile. That's what I'm beginning to think._

 _But I have to keep my thoughts on that to myself for now. Despite everything the people of Radiant Garden are happy to have Ansem back, and he is doing a lot of good. He's got the world back in shape must faster than the Restoration Committee ever could have –_ especially _since he won't let Yuffie_ near _the restoration coffers, or the tax income that's filling those coffers. (Yup, if your house is fixed, your business is up and running, and you have a job? You gotta pay taxes again. Good news is, almost all of it's going to restoring the world, with the rest being put in a "just in case" fund.)_

 _And honestly, I kinda need his help._

 _No one knows where the Council of the Keys took you. They have their own castle (Seriously, I'm beginning to think I'm the only one that doesn't have one!) but you're not there. I went banging on their door one day, demanding entrance, and though they pretty much threw me off the world, I was able to scan the place for hearts, (Having a keyblade has some nice perks.) and I didn't see yours. I've searched so many places, and I haven't been able to find you anywhere, and I'm running out of options. Not even Yen Sid and Mickey know where you might be. Sora and Riku want to help, but the two of them are off preparing for whenever Xehanort's schemes finally make their appearance, whenever that finally happens. The waiting really sucks, let me make that clear. Hopefully, the longer we wait, the greater the chances the old geezer will kick it first. He doesn't have Terra's body anymore, right? So maybe he's back in his old body – somehow._

 _I really try not to think about that. It makes my brain hurt._

 _Ansem is my last hope. Since you're from his world, maybe the Council bothered to tell him something. I know the chances are practically zero, but I still need to try. I don't know what else to do. If the council wants you for bait, we'll be waiting until Xehanort finally decides to make an appearance, and at the rate he's going, I might die of old age myself before that happens. (Maybe that's his plan?)_

 _So yeah, I'm going to see Ansem tomorrow, and maybe he can tell me something, point me in the right direction, or know someone that can help. Wish me luck! I can't wait any longer._

 _I'm going to find you, Isa! I don't care what it takes! I WILL bring you home!_

 _So hopefully, I'll see you soon!_

 _Love (but not_ that _way!),  
Lea_

 **OOOOOO**

Lea sat slumped down in the chair outside of Ansem's study, tapping one of his booted feet against the polished stone floor. Getting into the castle was a lot easier these days, with the help of a weapon that no lock could stop, but since he'd come seeking Ansem's help, he'd figured that simply walking in without an invitation would be a bad idea. So he'd done the adult thing (Ugh...) and asked Aeleus to request an audience for him with Radiant Garden's lord.

He smiled faintly; all those times he and Isa had snuck into the castle, and all they'd needed to do was simply ask. Isa would never believe it.

Actually, yeah he would. It had always been Lea's idea to try and sneak in after all.

Then again, the reason he'd been granted the audience was probably because of that aforementioned weapon that couldn't be stopped by any lock. Best to see him and get it done with, so he didn't just waltz in later.

Lea groaned as he tilted his head back to lean against the wall behind the chair and mentally ran through the speech he had prepared. Things had gotten so complicated since he'd summoned a keyblade. Get a keyblade, help save the universe; it had all seemed so easy then. Master Yen Sid had done the Inheritance Ceremony with him, and then the others had warped time to allow him to summon it quicker.

Step one: get keyblade. Check.

Step two: save the universe... Yeah, that didn't appear to be happening any time soon. Right now, he didn't really care about that anyway. Xehanort hadn't been seen in two years, at least one of his vessels had freed himself somehow, and a third was in the keeping of the Council of the Keys. His schemes couldn't go forward without them, right? Besides, Lea had Isa to worry about now; Xehanort could wait.

He broke from his thoughts and sat up when the door to the study opened, spilling warm yellow light into the cold hallway.

"Come in, Lea." came Ansem's voice from just on the other side, and Lea scrambled to his feet and had to force himself to not run in. He needed to be an adult (Ugh...) here and act politely. Use those manners that his parents had spent so long drilling into his head.

He walked into the study just in time for Ansem to seat himself behind his desk. The study door shut behind him as he was gestured to take a seat in front of the desk. He sat down, but before he could begin his carefully prepared speech, Ansem began speaking.

"I know why you came here, Lea." the man said, and Lea felt his heart sink at his tone. "No, I do not know where Isa is. The Council has not shared that information with me. I know why they have him: to use him as bait for Heir Xehanort, as he can track his vessels, but I do not know where they have taken him."

Lea sighed as he slumped down in the chair. "I... see." He dragged himself to his feet. "I'm sorry for bothering you, Lord Ansem. I'll see myself out."

"However," Ansem's words froze him in mid turn towards the door, "I do know someone who can help."

Lea slowly looked over his shoulder at him. "You do? Who?"

Ansem stood up to look him in the eye. "If you are serious about finding Isa, come back here later tonight, after 11pm. By then the castle will have only a skeleton staff up and about, and I know you'll be able to sneak down here without being seen. You must come alone, Lea, this is very important." Ansem looked straight into his eyes, orange meeting green. "If you are not alone, the person will leave without offering any assistance. Do not tell anyone that you are coming here, and pack for an extended journey."

Lea's mind caught up with him then, and he turned to fully face Ansem. "What? What are you talking about? Who can help? I don't -"

Ansem cut him off. "Do you want Isa back?"

"I do."

"What are you willing to do to see him safely home?"

"Anything."

"Even if it means going against your other friends? The other wielders of the keyblade? The Council of the Keys itself?"

"What is that supposed to mean? I want my best friend back!"

"Then pack for an extended journey, tell no one that you're leaving, and be back here after eleven."

Ansem sat back down and turned his attention to the piles of paperwork that covered the surface of the desk.

Lea stood there for a moment, his mouth working but making no sound. What the hell was that all about?

"You are dismissed, Lea." Ansem said evenly. "You might want to try getting a few hours sleep before you come back here, so you ought to go back home."

Lea blinked and shook his head. Ansem didn't say anything, and Lea slowly turned around and walked out of the study. What had just happened? He made his way out of the castle and through the town without thinking about it, and it wasn't until he'd walked through the door of his childhood home that his thought process restarted.

He sank down into the nearest chair in the silent room, still half expecting, despite all the years that had passed, for his father to appear and tell him to go sit in his own chair, but of course that hadn't happened. His parents hadn't survived once the world had come apart. Isa's had, and they'd begun to give up hope of ever seeing their only child again.

He had to do something... Ansem had said that there was someone that could help...

He stood up from the chair and wandered back to his bedroom, the same one he'd occupied before the world's fall. Twelve years since the fall, two years since he'd learned that his mother and father hadn't made it, and he still couldn't bear to take over the master bedroom that had once been theirs. He absently began pulling clothes out of drawers and piling them in the middle of his bed. Isa's parents had refused to return to their old home, claiming that it was haunted by the memories of their missing son. Lea had gone over there once, and even with the damage to the house: roof caved in, collapsing floors, peeling paint, broken windows, debris piled up everywhere, he'd been able to easily see the house as it had once been. Neat as a pin and ringing with the laughter of two boys planning their next adventure.

He hadn't stayed long, and he hadn't been back since. He'd also been secretly relieved when the dilapidated building had been demolished not long afterward.

He hauled a backpack out of the closet and tossed it on the bed next to his clothes. It wasn't right. No one knew how the Council had even gotten their hands on Isa. They'd just announced that they had him one day and had allowed Mickey to see for himself but had refused to let anyone try and help him. Mickey's description of Isa sitting slumped against the wall in an empty room, head lolled to the side, eyes staring blankly ahead, drool dripping from his chin had sent Lea to their castle, demanding entrance. They'd laughed at him and tossed him not only out of the castle, but off of the world itself. It had been two years, and no one had seen Isa since.

For that matter, except for Terra, none of Xehanort's vessels – Lea winced at thinking of Isa as one of them – had been seen since the confrontation in Where Nothing Gathers. Sora and the others had scoured the worlds for them, but they seemed to have vanished. What was Xehanort planning? Why was he waiting?

"Well, it doesn't matter." Lea said to himself in the otherwise silent room. "I don't care about Xehanort anymore. I'm going to find Isa, and I'm going to bring him home." With that he tossed one last thing, a blue hardcover writing journal, into the backpack and zipped it shut. He then left it sitting on his bed, while he went off to the kitchen to make himself something for lunch.

 **OOOOOO**

A few hours after sunset, Lea slipped quietly through town towards the castle. His black coat was on with the hood up, and he used it to the fullest to better blend in with the shadows of trees and houses cast by the bright moonlight. He'd thought about using the Corridors of Darkness to get in quicker, but he'd discarded that after a moment of thought. He'd already been warned by Master Mickey about the dangers of continued use of the Darkness, and he had no desire to lose his heart again or worse, end up like Xehanort, corrupted beyond any hope of redemption. To complicate things, years of being Nobodies had given the former Organization members a heightened sensitivity to Darkness, and he didn't want to risk Even or one of the others sensing it and coming to investigate. Ansem had said to come alone, and that's what he was going to do.

He summoned Proud Flame as he ascended the steps to the castle's main entrance, and a quick tap to the doors released the massive locks that kept them shut. From there, it was easy enough to open one of the doors just enough to slip inside, close it behind him, and relock it. It was a simple matter to make his way through the dimly lit castle to the study, and Ansem's voice bade him enter before he could even raise his hand to knock.

Unlike the rest of the castle, all the lights were on in Ansem's study, and he was sitting at his desk, working on some kind of paperwork. Once Lea had stepped in and closed the door behind him, he looked up at him.

"Are you ready?" he asked in a serious tone.

Lea nodded as he lowered his hood. "Yes, who is it that's going to help?"

Ansem stood up and looked him in the eye again. "Before he comes out, you must swear to me to keep your head when you see him. Do not leave this room, and do not raise your voice."

"Why?"

"Swear to me, Lea, or you will turn around and walk right back out that door."

Lea paused and growled slightly in frustration as he raked his hand back through his hair. "Fine, I swear to not flip out. Happy?"

Ansem gave him a long, searching look before he nodded once. "Lock the door."

Lea growled again as he spun around, summoned Proud Flame, and fired off a beam of light at the door's keyhole. The lock clicking into place echoed loudly in the room, and Lea spun back around to face Ansem as he dismissed his keyblade. "Are you done now? I'd like to get on with finding my best friend."

"Mind your tone." came a voice from the left, a voice that made Lea's heart freeze for a moment. "You do not speak to Lord Ansem that way."

Lea stood there, frozen in place, staring at Ansem, for a moment, before he turned to face the voice. Proud Flame appeared without him thinking about it.

"Xehanort!"

Lord Ansem's adopted son, the heir still to Radiant Garden's throne, the man responsible for so much destruction and countless deaths, the one who had taken Isa from him, stood there in front of the door to the lab, calmly looking back at Lea like he had not a care in the world. Like he didn't have a near universe wide manhunt looking for him. Lea absently took in the paler skin, the bright gold eyes, the shoulders that weren't quite as broad as they had been as Xemnas, the longer hair that was white as it had been before the Fall instead of Xemnas' silvery gray, and the aura of power that rolled around him like a tightly constrained thunderstorm about to break free. A black Organization coat swept down to his ankles as he casually crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame.

Lea shook his head; Xehanort's looks weren't the important thing here. "What the hell are you doing here, Xehanort!"

"Do not address Heir Xehanort so informally." Ansem said in a firm tone, and Lea turned to look at him.

"What! 'Heir' Xehanort? Are you serious? Are you out of your mind! After everything he did, he's still Heir Xehanort!" He looked back at Xehanort, who was still regarding him with a bored expression. "He throws you into the Realm of Darkness, destroys the world, and you still treat him as your son! He should be hanging from a gallows somewhere, not standing here like nothing's wrong! Why in the hell -"

"Enough!" Xehanort straightened up, and Lea flinched despite himself as the man's power pressed down upon him. "I just told you that you do not speak to Lord Ansem in such a way."

"It is fine, Xehanort." Ansem said from his desk. "I expected this reaction."

Xehanort stared at Lea for a moment, and then he _Hmph'd_ and leaned back against the door frame again. "I suppose so, but I believe that my coming here may have been a waste of my time."

"You're the only one that can help, Xehanort." Ansem replied, and Lea whipped around to stare at him. "Isa and Braig are the only ones left to find."

Lea couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "Xehanort? _Xehanort_ is the one you said would help me?" Ansem nodded, and Lea just stared at him while his mouth moved but no words came out.

"I think you broke him, Papa." Xehanort said, the amusement in his tone coming through clearly.

"You find this funny!" Lea snapped as he turned to look at him. "I should walk right out that door, find any member of the guard, hell, anyone would work, and tell them you're here! I'm sure the people would love to hear that you had the gall to come back here!"

Xehanort simply looked at him, one elegant white eyebrow raised. "Fine then. I see that I am not needed here." He turned to look at Ansem. "I shall endeavor to return Isa safely home as soon as possible, though I have no idea when that will be."

"What you mean 'return him safely home'?" Lea demanded, but he was ignored.

"And Braig?" Ansem asked.

"He was the only one willing in this entire scheme. I cannot say."

"Aside from you." Lea growled, but again, he was ignored.

"I still think you should take Lea with you." Ansem said. "He could benefit from your experience, and he won't be climbing the walls here about Isa if he's actively helping to find him."

"That is true." Xehanort frowned in thought, and Lea scowled about being spoken of as though he wasn't in the room. "He also can't go running to anyone who will listen about my appearance here if I have him with me."

Ansem and Xehanort looked at him then, and Lea scowled again.

"You have two options, Lea." Xehanort said. "Stay here and do nothing, or come with me, help me track down Isa, and learn how to handle that keyblade properly while you're at it."

"I can teach myself!" Lea snarled. "If Sora could learn by himself, then so can I."

"Don't make me laugh. The only thing Sora has taught himself is how to destroy his knees from not carrying the keyblade properly. Why Master Yen Sid allows him to go on without teaching him anything is beyond me."

"Says the one who has lost to Sora twice."

Xehanort didn't move or change expression. "A Heartless and a Nobody. Powerful, but not the full extent of what I am capable of, not at all. Now, choose."

"You honestly expect me to just follow you after everything you've done?"

"What other option do you have? I am your only hope for getting Isa back."

"The council said they would return him once they had found you. I'd rather take my chances -"

Xehanort let out a snort. "Do you honestly think that they're telling the truth? They need him to lead me into whatever trap they have planned. Once I'm gone, they'll have no more use for him."

"And they'll let him come home, so what's the problem?"

"They won't let him come home. He has a fragment of my heart within his own. Once they have no need of him, they'll simply destroy him to destroy the fragment."

Once again Lea found his mouth working with no sound coming out. "What?" he finally managed to croak after a minute or so had passed. "But they said -"

"I am the only one who can free Isa's heart without severely damaging or outright destroying it. Killing him is the far easier option for ensuring that no part of me survives. Once I am gone, they will not hesitate. One way or another, Isa will never come home if you rely on them."

The room fell silent then, and Lea stared at Xehanort as the latter's words ran though his head over and over.

"Make your choice, Lea." Ansem said quietly once a few minutes had passed. "Heir Xehanort cannot stay here much longer."

"Can't I take a day to think on it?" Lea asked as he finally forced his voice to work.

Xehanort glanced up at the clock above the door to the rest of the castle. "You have 30 seconds."

Lea looked over at Ansem." Why?" he asked. "Why do you want me to do this?"

"Because I trust him." Ansem said with a faint smile. "So should you, if you want Isa back."

"But, everything he's done... I..."

"Twenty seconds."

"I know, I know it's hard to believe that he's not that way anymore, but I need you to trust me, Lea. Heir Xehanort only wants to set right what he did wrong."

"How do you know though? How do we know that this isn't some trick of his?"

"Ten seconds."

"Because he proved it to me. That is my son standing there, not the monster he became. I trust him, and I need you to do the same if you want to bring Isa home safely."

"I dunno..." Lea flicked his eyes over at Xehanort, who was still watching the clock with a bored expression. "Are you sure. I mean, really sure?"

"Yes, I am certain."

"Time's up."

Lea paused, took a deep breath, and then he turned to face Xehanort.

"Have you made your choice?" the Keyblade Master asked, and Lea stared at him. His heart hammered away in his chest, and he clenched his fists at his sides as his thoughts seemed to freeze. He couldn't just go along with him.. what if it was all a trap... but if he was telling the truth about Isa...

"Well?"

The man who had destroyed Radiant Garden... who had stolen so many lives... had taken Isa from him... had tried to possess Sora...

"I am waiting."

...was swearing to bring Isa back, to break the possession.

Xehanort let out an aggravated sigh, pushed himself off of the door frame, and began to walk away, back through the door that led into the lab.

"Wait!" The word was out of Lea's mouth before he could think about it, and Xehanort paused and looked over his shoulder. "You really are going to bring him home?"

"Yes."

"Why? You have a death sentence on your head. Why are you risking so much?"

"Because," Xehanort rolled his eyes, "it's the right thing to do. Now are you coming or not? I don't have all night."

Lea ignored the question. "And how can we trust you to judge what is right after everything you've done?"

"Lea..." Ansem said warningly, but Xehanort waved him off and turned to face Lea once more.

"You're just going to have to trust me then, aren't you?"

"I..."

"Do you want Isa back or not, Lea? Come with me, help me find him, and by the time I am through, you will be more than capable of defending him from anyone else."

"Why would I need to do worry about that?"

Xehanort rolled his eyes again. "Use that intelligence that I know you have, Lea! Think for a moment! He may be possessed by a fragment of my heart right now, but the fact remains that he _willingly_ became Xemnas' second-in-command all those years ago. And there will always be people that will distrust him and wish him harm because of said possession. Never mind that it happened against his will, he was once part of me, so there will be those that seek to end him because of it." Xehanort straightened up and stared him down. "Now, I will not waste any more time. Are you coming with me or not?"

Lea didn't answer. His vocal chords felt frozen as his mind and heart warred with each other. Xehanort huffed again and turned to Ansem.

"I will be in touch, Papa." he said, and then he spun on his heel and began to walk through the door that led into the lab.

"Wait," Lea croaked, but Xehanort did not pause in his stride. Lea nearly ran to the door and put his hands on the frame. "Wait!"

Xehanort paused, and Lea ran up to stand beside him. "Yes, I'll come with you!"

"Took you long enough. I hope you're not always this slow at decision making." Xehanort said as he continued walking down the corridor. The door to the study shut behind them as Lea hurried to keep up.

"What the hell did you expect? You just show up wanting me to follow you? The last time I followed you, I lost my heart if you remember."

"As I said before, what other option do you have?"

They stepped into the silent computer room that overlooked the main lab. "Yeah, whatever you say, Norty." Lea muttered to himself.

He felt his feet abruptly leave the floor, and before he could put in any thought as to why that was happening, he felt his back slam into the wall with enough force that it punched most of the air out of his lungs. He was up against the wall, several feet above the floor. Xehanort stood in the middle of the room, with one arm raised and one hand pointing at Lea.

"Let me make something very clear here." Xehanort said in a low tone that made the hair on Lea's arms stand up. "You do not like me, and you do not trust me. Fine, you have your reasons, and frankly, I do not care. However, I am still a Keyblade Master, while you are just barely an apprentice, and I will not be disrespected. From here on, I am Master Xehanort to you. You do not address me by name without my title, and I will not tolerate any cutesy nickname from you. That includes Norty, Xeh-xeh, or any other variation of my name that you can come up with. Am I clear?"

Lea didn't answer, still trying to get his breath back.

"I am waiting for an answer, Lea!"

"Yes," he wheezed.

"Yes, what?"

Lea coughed and was finally able to suck in some air. "Yes, Master Xehanort."

"Good." Xehanort dropped his arm, and Lea felt whatever force that was holding him against the wall release. He dropped bonelessly to the floor, coughing. Xehanort stood there and watched him until he'd caught his breath.

"Now, get up. We have to be gone before anyone notices that I'm here."

Lea staggered to his feet, winching as his back muscles protested the movement.

"Heal." came Xehanort's voice, and Lea felt the green magic of a Cure spell wash over him then. The ache in his back abruptly vanished. "Now summon your glider; we have places to be."

Lea shook his head as he brought his breathing under control and called Proud Flame to him, suddenly glad that Master Yen Sid had at least explained that much to him. He didn't want to think of how Xehanort would react if he didn't know how to summon the glider form.

In a flare of light, the keyblade changed shape, and Xehanort spent a moment looking it over, before he looked up at Lea.

"This reminds me of a motorcycle." he commented as a sly smile touched his lips. "Or perhaps a bicycle might be more appropriate. With training wheels."

"Oh, come on." Lea grumbled. He didn't know what a motorcycle was, but he knew he'd just been insulted.

With nary a gesture, Xehanort summoned his own keyblade, and Lea shivered at the sight of the weapon that had, years ago, torn his heart from his chest. He blinked in surprise when it turned into a pair of wings that attached themselves to Xehanort's back; it made him think of these things called angels he'd once heard about while visiting Neverland for the Organization years ago.

Xehanort opened the Lanes Between. "Follow right behind me, do not wander off, and -" A smirk twisted his mouth as he looked at Lea's glider. "- try not to fall off."

Lea gave him an indignant look, but Xehanort ignored it as he flew easily through the gateway into the Lanes. Lea mounted his own glider, took a deep breath, and then he followed, wondering as he went if he was going to end up regretting it later.


	2. This Is Gonna Hurt

**2.  
This Is Gonna Hurt  
**

 _Dear Isa,_

 _Xehanort!_

 _Fucking XEHANORT!_

 _Can you believe this? Ansem tells me someone can help, and he's talking about the same person who wrecked everything to begin with! Seriously, he has to be going senile or something! Who in their right mind would trust Xehanort after everything he's done! He's the reason I'm having to search for you in the first place! Ugh! I can't believe this!_

 _He's changed, Ansem says. Yeah, like I believe that! He's probably just waiting for us to all drop our guard before he picks up right where he left off. Who knows, he might even be taking me on this little trip to get a second chance at possessing me or something. I don't even want to take my eyes off of him for a second if I can help it, but damn it, that's going to be hard. I have to sleep sometime, you know. He has to sleep too, but I don't know if he'll wake up before me and tear my heart out again._

 _Aaaargh! I HATE this! First I find out that Xehanort's taken you for his own, and then the fuckers on the Council take you away before I even get a chance to see you again! This isn't fair! Who gave them the right to do that? Master Yen Sid said the council was formed after the Keyblade War to watch over the remaining keyblade wielders to try and prevent another war. Yeah, look how well that has worked out. Xehanort is so close to succeeding, and all they've done about it is steal my best friend away. They sat on their collective asses while the worlds were falling and made no attempt to aid Sora and Master Riku. They did nothing, and now they want me to just sit in the corner like a good little boy and wait for you to come home._

 _As much as I don't want to believe Xehanort though, the things he's said make a scary sort of sense. If he's the only one that can easily free your heart, and if the council just needs you for bait, then I could see them doing what he'd said they'd do. I don't want to write it here; it's terrifying enough just thinking about it. Seeing it in writing would be even worse. I keep telling myself that he's full of it, that they wouldn't do that, but it falls too neatly into place when I think about it._

 _It just all seems so hopeless now. No one knows where you are, and the only person who's stepped forward to help find you is the very person who put you in that state to start with. He's sitting across from me, writing something himself. I'm kinda curious about it, but I'm not about to ask. He threw a massive fit when I called him Norty earlier. I'd hate to see how he'd react if I nosed into his business. Maybe he's writing a love letter to Ansem or something._

 _We didn't fly too far away from Radiant Garden, since it was so late. We flew to another world behind it, where it was earlier in the night to set up camp. He told me that we would be busy tomorrow, and that we had to be well rested. I wanted to just get on with it, but he told me very firmly that we were stopping for the night, end of story. I smarted off to him, something about him just wanting me asleep so he could have his wicked way with me, and I thought for damn sure he was going to backhand me or something. Instead he just blew me away from the spot where we'd stopped, and I hit the ground hard enough to leave me dazed for a minute. He chewed me out for disrespecting him again and told me that if I kept it up, I could go back to Radiant Garden and wait for him to find you himself. Then he made me apologize! Seriously, he hasn't even apologized for all the crap he's done, and he makes me say I'm sorry for mouthing off! I don't remember him being this much of a prick before. He seemed like a nice guy back then, right after Ansem adopted him. I wish that version of Xehanort was here, instead of this high and mighty "I am a Keyblade Master and you will address me as such." type that I got to deal with right now. Hell, back then he didn't even care if we didn't address him as "Heir Xehanort" all that much. It was Ansem and the guard that got their hackles up about it._

 _Times like this make me really miss you, you know. Remember how it used to be? Even in the early days of the Organization, if one of us had a problem, we'd just talk it over with each other and suddenly things wouldn't seem so bad. And there was always ice cream. Remember how ice cream made everything better? You used to get so annoyed with me because I was obsessed with sea salt, and I kept buying it for you even though you preferred plain vanilla. Thinking back on it, I realize now that you didn't like sea salt and were only eating it to be nice. Well, when I get you home, we're going out for ice cream, and I'll get you the biggest bar of vanilla they have. That sound good? It's a date then._

 _Well, Nort-nort is giving me a look over the fire, so I probably ought to put this away for the night. I hope we're not out here long enough to fill up this entire book. I just wanted something sturdy that would hold up over time, good thing too, since it has to survive what looks to be a lot of world hopping. Hopefully not, but since I was told to pack for a long trip, that's what it looks like it's gonna be._

 _Hope to see you soon!  
Lea_

 **OOOOOO**

Lea put the notebook away in his pack as Xehanort snuffed the fire with a thought. He'd already put his own writing away and popped up a tent for the night, and Lea wanted to smack himself for not thinking to bring a sleeping bag or something for himself.

"Where are we going tomorrow?" he asked as he tried to find a soft spot of ground near the fire. He could barely see what he was doing, and he had a feeling that Xehanort was watching him in amusement.

"We have to go see someone in this world." Xehanort replied, sounding like he was already inside his tent.

"Who would that be?"

"This world's ruler."

"Why in the world would you see that person, whoever it is? Won't they just try to have you arrested or something?"

"Lumaria has been of great help these past several months, so I am not concerned with that."

"Lumaria? Lumaria Fiore? We're on his world?"

He heard Xehanort shift. "Yes? You did not notice this? I know you've been to Meadowseele before, so how could you not notice which world we had landed on?"

"It's not like I ever learned all the worlds and their locations. Having dark portals made that unnecessary."

"Something else that I have to teach you then. I'm guessing that you also never learned wilderness survival?"

"Nooo... Why would I ever need to know that?"

"Because it can save your life. Because you never know when you'll have to forage for a meal. Because food from a store or restaurant isn't always available. Take your pick." Xehanort shifted again. "Tomorrow, you and I are going to have a long talk about what you do and don't know. It seems that I have a lot to teach you."

Lea just barely managed to stop himself from smarting off again. He didn't feel like being tossed out of bed. He laid down and tried to get comfortable, and he stared up at the sky overhead for a moment before there was the sound of Xehanort moving, and something heavy sailed over the remains of the fire and landed on him.

"What the hell?" He grabbed a hold of whatever it was and felt the course feel of wool under his fingers. It was a blanket, and he heard Xehanort go still again as he resisted the urge to throw it back. He didn't want anything that belonged to that crazy... But, he found himself covering up with it anyway, so he sighed and went with it. He pulled the blanket over himself as he heard the flap on Xehanort's tent close, and after a few minutes, he heard the other's breathing slow down as he fell asleep.

"At least he doesn't snore." Lea grumbled to himself as he tried to get comfortable. He'd never slept on the ground before, and he was quickly coming to learn that he didn't like it. It seemed like every rock in the area had somehow migrated under his coat and was poking him in the sides and back. The hard as a brick beds at the Castle That Never Was were more comfortable than this. Why couldn't they have gone straight to Lumaria's castle instead of camping out here?

"Because it would have been rude to bother him so late." Xehanort's voice made him jump. "Now go to sleep, Lea."

"How in the hell did you -?"

"You were muttering to yourself. Now go to sleep, or I will use magic to make you."

Lea scoffed. "I'd like to see you -"

" _Sleep,_ Lea."

"- try..." Xehanort's magic came over him like a heavier version of the blanket he was covered with, one that was too heavy to simply kick away. Lea felt his eyes close and his body relax, and before he could even attempt to complain about it, he was dead to the world for the rest of the night.

 **OOOOOO**

It was the smell of cooking food that dragged Lea out of a deep sleep. He slowly sat up, and he groaned as his head felt heavy and his thoughts muzzy. He rubbed at his gunked up eyes and managed a half-hearted glare at Xehanort, who was using coals from the previous night's fire to grill some kind of leaf wrapped bundle. Nearby, there was another small, leaf wrapped package that, to judge by the darkening of the leaves, had already been cooked.

"You asshole." Lea growled as his head throbbed. "What the hell was that for?"

Xehanort didn't even look up from his cooking. He merely raised his free hand and flicked his fingers, and Lea found himself launched away from camp again. He landed in a tangle of limbs and leather coat some feet away, and he laid there for a moment, dazed, before he stumbled to his feet.

"Goddamn it, Xehano -!" was all he was able to say before Xehanort flicked his fingers again and knocked him back a few more feet.

"Will you fucking qui -!" Flick, fling.

He dragged himself back to his feet and opened his mouth, but Xehanort cut him off before he could say a word.

"If you would like to return to camp and have breakfast, I would suggest that you watch your mouth around me." Lea growled, clenched his fists and said nothing. "Now, come back here."

He growled again and didn't move for a long moment. He didn't want to go back to camp. He didn't want to have to deal with Xehanort. He most certainly didn't want to be made to apologize, which he knew Xehanort would demand of him.

"Lea." Xehanort was using that low tone that he'd used in the computer room again, and Lea kicked angrily at the ground before stomping back over.

Xehanort looked up at him. "Sit down."

It wasn't a request, or a suggestion, and Lea huffed before he sat down.

"As I said before," Xehanort said as he took the second leaf wrapped package off of the coals and set it aside before he looked back at Lea with a serious expression, "You do not like me, and you do not trust me. You have good reasons for that, and I can't fault you for them. However, I _am_ trying to help you. The more you fight me, the harder things will be for both of us. You want Isa to come home, and I am your only hope for getting to him safely. The Council will shred you if you attempt to fight them. You have no training, and you rely heavily upon fire magic, and don't think for an instant that they don't know that. If you ever want to see Isa again, you will have to do as I say, and that includes not being a disrespectful brat."

Lea went to jump to his feet as smoke began to rise up from around him.

"Sit down!" Xehanort barked, and Lea felt his fire snuff out before it really had a chance to ignite.

"What did you do?" he demanded. No one had ever managed to do that before, and the realization made him shiver.

"Sit down." Xehanort said again, this time quieter, but no less firm.

"How did you _do_ that?"

"I will tell you after you sit down."

Lea snarled and sat. "Happy now?"

"Now apologize to me for your mouth."

"Damn it, Xeha -!"

Flick, fling.

Lea groaned as he stumbled to his feet once more, but before he could get his bearings back in order, he felt himself dragged back to camp and pushed down to sit on the grass.

Xehanort leveled a look that was somewhere between disappointed and angry at him. "I am running out of patience with you, Lea. That is the fourth time in only a few minutes that I've disciplined you for being disrespectful to me, something that I warned you just last night that I would not tolerate. I would have expected you to put cause and effect together by now, either that or you're perhaps not as smart as I had once thought. I am so very close to throwing you through a portal back to Radiant Garden.

"You are putting this entire trip at risk with your attitude. Mouth off to me, yell my name in the wrong place, and we will have every form of law enforcement in the worlds after us, including the Council of the Keys. Our only way to find Isa is to keep our heads down and avoid being noticed, something that will not happen if you do not keep your mouth shut.

"Now, for the last time, apologize to me for your mouth."

Lea snarled wordlessly, but the sudden growling on his stomach reminded him that Xehanort had food. "Fine. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for mouthing off to you."

"And?"

Lea snarled again. "Sorry for being a disrespectful brat."

"Come, Lea, you can do better than that. Apologize, and do it properly this time."

"Goddamn it, Xeh-" Xehanort's fingers twitched, and Lea hastily cut the sentence off.

"I am waiting, Lea."

Oh how he _hated_ the man in front of him now. Lea glared at him, silently willing him to burst into flames or something, but of course nothing happened. The corner of Xehanort's mouth twitched, as if he knew what Lea was thinking.

"It is not hard, Lea. Say 'Master Xehanort, I apologize to you for mouthing off and for being a disrespectful brat. It won't happen again.'"

Lea glared at him even harder. "I hate you right now."

"You seem to be under the impression that I care. Now you have five seconds before I toss you back through a portal to Radiant Garden."

"Master Xehanort," Lea began through clenched teeth, "I apologize for mouthing off and for being a disrespectful brat. It won't happen again."

"See how easy that was?" Xehanort took one of the leaf wrapped packages and set it on the ground in front of Lea. "Now, eat. After we eat, we have things to discuss before we go meet with Lord Fiore."

"Not going to force me to go without?" Lea said with a faint sneer. "How generous of you."

Xehanort went still for a moment, and then he looked at Lea with an expression so serious that it took him a bit by surprise. "I will never, under _any_ circumstances, deny food as a punishment. You will be consuming great amounts of energy as we go, and you will need to be well fed and well rested to supply that energy. Now, eat."

Lea carefully pulled apart the leaves to reveal a fillet of fish, with what looked like a small amount of salt and pepper sprinkled over it. The faint scent of coconut touched his nose as the steam spiraled up. "What is this?"

"Salmon, with salt and pepper."

Lea blinked in surprise; had Xehanort been carrying fish around in his pack? "Where did you get it?"

Xehanort used a dagger to tear off a chunk of meat from his own fillet and ate it. "I caught it. There is a river not far from here."

"How did you catch it? You don't have a fishing pole!"

"A pole is only necessary if you're going after the larger fish. Some can easily be caught with a line held in one's hand. Now eat, Lea. We have places to be."

Lea looked down at the meat. It had stopped steaming, but it was still very hot. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Use your fingers. We will get you a mess kit later on today."

Xehanort turned to eating his own fish then, and Lea carefully tried to tear a bit of meat off, but the hot meat burned his fingers. Contrary to what many seemed to think, he wasn't immune to heat or fire outside of his own, a fact that annoyed him greatly. After waiting a few minutes for it to cool a bit more, he finally just picked it up, leaves and all, and ate it while holding it like a sandwich. The meat had a smokey, slightly sweet flavor, and to his surprise, Xehanort had eaten the leaves his had been wrapped in, and he encouraged Lea to do the same.

"Fig leaves are good for you. They are a good source of vitamins, iron, and calcium, among other things. Eat them."

"Not trying to poison me or anything, are you?"

Xehanort rolled his eyes. "Just eat the damned leaves, Lea. I don't have time to listen to you. We have far more important things to be talking about."

Lea huffed. "Fine." he ground out before doing as he'd been told. Though they had been dried up by the heat of the fire, they didn't taste half bad, a stronger version of the fruity flavor he'd detected in the meat.

Xehanort waited for him to finish, and then he started to speak.

"I have a lot to teach you and not enough time to do it in." he said in a calm, even tone that reminded Lea of the days before Radiant Garden's fall, of Heir Xehanort speaking cordially with people he met in town. He had roamed freely through town on a regular basis, with only Dilan, Braig, or Aeleus for protection. Not that he had needed it; the people of Radiant Garden had adored him.

And look how he had repaid that?

"Pay attention!" Xehanort's voice cracked like a whip, startling Lea out of his thoughts. "I am speaking!" Lea looked at him and nearly shivered at the look in his eyes. Xehanort's golden eyes were glowing with power, and they seemed to pin Lea in place. "When I am speaking, I expect you to listen, Lea. I have no patience for such inattentiveness."

"And what if I don't want to listen to you?" Lea snapped.

"Then you will die trying to bring Isa home. Two years you have had that keyblade, and you have learned nothing about using it."

"Well, it's not my fault that no one had time to teach me anything."

"Did you even ask? Or did you let them assume that you would teach yourself?"

"I.." Lea paused. "I... just assumed that they would teach me when they had time. Everyone was too worried about looking for you."

"And who was going to do that? Master Yen Sid is retired. Master Mickey has a world to run. Master Aqua has her hands full with Ventus and Terra, and Master Riku is committed to the search for me."

"Aren't there other masters left, aside from the council I mean?"

Xehanort inclined his head a bit. "A good number, but bringing any of them in could potentially backfire, and Master Yen Sid is aware of that."

"Why?"

"Tell them that Master Xehanort wishes to summon Kingdom Hearts, and what do you think will happen?"

"They would want to stop you, right?"

"Oh assuredly, some of them will, but what about the rest of them? Remember that the plan was to incite a keyblade war by doing what?"

"By summoning Kingdom Hearts..." Lea trailed off, and then his eyes widened, and he looked at Xehanort in shock. "They would have helped you?"

"Or at the very least refused to help stop me. One or two might have even agreed to train you, but only because you would have been one of the seven lights needed to forge the X-blade. Rather than take the risk, you were left to your own devices."

"That's not why you're offering to teach me, is it? So I can be one of those lights?"

Xehanort looked at him. "No," he said in a clipped tone.

There was a long pause, in which Xehanort didn't move his gaze, and Lea felt like he was back in school, after being (correctly) accused of putting thumbtacks on his teacher's chair.

"Today, we will visit the castle town outside of Lumaria's castle, and we will get you what you need to travel the worlds." Xehanort finally looked away, and Lea nearly sighed as he relaxed.

"Like what?"

"You need a mess kit for one: knife, spoon, fork, and bowl. You also need a fishing line with a hook and lure, so I can teach you how to fish for yourself. A knife or dagger, as well as a sheath and sharpening stone for it is a must. You will find yourself using it quite often. A bracelet made from survival cord is also very useful. It can be unwound and used for all manner of things, from tying up bundles of kindling for easy transport, to tying tree branches together to form a makeshift shelter. A small metal canister with matches and tinder is also very important."

"Wait, I'm a fire elemental. Why would I need matches?"

"Your magic may not always be available to you, or it might be too dangerous to use. There are multiple reasons, so it's better to be prepared."

"I suppose that's true. What else then?"

"I'd like to find you a small hatchet, for cutting firewood, a good quality tent that can shrink and fit into a pocket, and finally, a way for you to carry it all." Xehanort gestured towards Lea's small backpack. "That little thing is not up to the job, and I expect it to fall apart fairly quickly. There are spells I can cast on your coat pockets that will make everything you put in them shrink down until you fish them back out again, but I'm not sure you would want me touching your coat."

"Wait," Lea said as something occurred to him, ignoring the thing about his coat for the moment, "How am I going to pay for all of this? I don't have any munny."

Xehanort waved that off. "Do not concern yourself with it. I will handle it."

"You?"

"Of course." Xehanort gave him an amused look. "Did no one tell you that apprentices are supported by their masters until the Mark of Mastery exam?"

"Seriously?"

"Of course. One cannot expect children to pay their own way, after all."

"But I'm not a kid."

"No, but you are still an apprentice, _my_ apprentice actually, so I am obliged to support you until you either pass the Mark of Mastery, or I throw you out." Xehanort smirked. "Behave, and I might even give you an allowance."

Lea bolted upright and stared at him with wide eyes. " _Your_ apprentice? What do you mean by 'your apprentice'?"

"Yes," Xehanort's smirk widened, "my apprentice. That's traditionally what it's called when a master takes on a pupil."

Lea felt his mouth moving, but without any sound coming out, which made Xehanort laugh. It was a sound that he hadn't heard since before Radiant Garden's fall, and it made him shiver a little.

"Why does that surprise you so, Lea?"

Lea ducked his head and grumbled. "Why?"

"Because I want you to learn."

"That can't be all of it."

"I have my reasons. You don't need to know all of them now. It's enough for you to know that I want you to properly know how to handle a keyblade, and that having you along will prevent you from tearing your hair out while waiting for news about Isa."

"I still don't trust you."

"I wouldn't expect anything otherwise. Now," Xehanort stood up, and Lea felt the remaining heat from the coals vanish abruptly, like it had never been there at all, "gather your things. We have an appointment to keep."

 **OOOOOO**

A couple hours' hike later found the two wandering through the outskirts of the town that surrounded Lumaria's castle. The place was bustling with activity, and Lea tried not to stare at it as they went through with their hoods up. No one seemed to pay them any mind, why or how he didn't know, and people just stepped out of their way without even looking at them. He wanted to ask Xehanort how it was possible, but he could barely hear himself think over the noise.

Vendors announcing their wares, merchants haggling with their customers, children shrieking and and yelling as they ran up and down the flagstone streets, young women gossiping on corners, men singing bawdy songs as they worked. The sound was unreal to Lea. People were pressed in from all sides, and it was all he could do to keep his sight on Xehanort, who was walking several feet in front of him. People just seemed to move aside as Xehanort neared them, and they closed back in after he had passed. Radiant Garden had open air markets once or twice a year, but it was nothing like he was seeing here. On his previous visits to Meadowseele, he'd portaled closer to the castle, so he'd missed this before.

"What the hell was with all of that?" he finally asked as they neared the castle and the crowds began to ease.

Xehanort didn't pause in his stride as Lea quickened his pace to walk beside him. "Meadowseele is a pre-industrial world. They have the printing press, the collar harness for horses, the bloomery for making steel in small amounts, and a few other forms of simple technology, but that is all. No automation, no mass production. As a result, most goods are hand crafted, and are sold at markets such as the one we just went through. If you need or want anything, that is where you get it, unlike Radiant Garden, which has stores stocked with mass produced items. That is why the market is so busy."

"Okay, that makes sense, but Lumaria was around higher technology for years, when he was with the Organization. Why doesn't he just bring the stuff here?"

"Because the infrastructure to support it is not in place yet, though I assure you that I am working on it." said an accented voice.

Lea jumped in surprise and looked up to find Lumaria standing there in front of them, with the faintest hint of a smirk touching his lips, and what appeared to be two royal guards flanking him. The previous times that Lea had seem him, he'd been dressed rather simply in a linen shirt and leather trousers. Now, he couldn't have looked more different. The first thing to catch Lea's attention was the ivory colored, form fitting tunic with a mandarin collar that went to Lumaria's knees and was covered with fine details that had been embroidered in with red thread. Baggy pants of the same color as the thread were visible under the tunic, along with the white slippers that covered his feet. His hair was longer, and it was far more sleek and smooth than he'd ever seen it before, and it was kept out of his face by some kind of crown that thinned and tapered down as it disappeared under the hair. It was made out of gold and silver, set with the shapes of flowers and leaves, and had a deep red stone at the center of each flower.

"It is very rude to stare, Lea." came Xehanort's voice from his left, startling him again. He blinked and saw that Lumaria's smirk had widened.

"Well aren't you the textbook definition of classy." he snarked, only to have his head knocked forward by a slap to the back of it.

"Be polite!" Xehanort barked.

"You don't know how many times Marluxia wanted to do that." Lumaria said as Lea rubbed the back of his head and glared at Xehanort.

Xehanort met his glare head on. "Xemnas as well, I assure you."

Lea looked away from the stare as another person, dressed in far simpler clothing, approached Lumaria and bowed in respect. To Lea's surprise, that other person then turned to Xehanort and bowed again.

Lumaria, without looking away from Xehanort, spoke a series of strange, rapid fire sounds that Lea hadn't heard since a few months after Marluxia's entry into the Organization. Like Demyx and Luxord before him, and Larxene after him, the pink haired Nobody had quickly abandoned his native language out of necessity, since the upper echelons of the organization hadn't believed in translators.

The servant bowed deeply and said something in response. Lumaria then nodded at Xehanort, who returned it with a short bow of his own, and Lea blinked in surprise as the pink haired king walked away.

The other person, who appeared to be a servant of some kind, then turned to Xehanort, and spoke another long series of sounds, and Lea felt his jaw fall open when Xehanort said something back, using those same strange sounds. Xehanort then began to follow the servant back towards the castle, while Lea stood there, staring in surprise.

Xehanort looked over his shoulder at him. "Let's go, Lea. We don't have all day."

Lea had to nearly run to catch up. "What language was that?"

"That," Xehanort said without looking at Lea, "was Santili, the language of this world. Surely you remember hearing it when Marluxia joined the Organization?"

"Well, yeah, but when did you learn to speak it?"

"It is one of the gifts of bearing a keyblade. We learn languages preternaturally fast."

"So.. I'll be able to do that too then?"  
"Eventually, yes. There are some things to learn, but once you have the basics down, you will start picking up languages left, right, and center."

They fell silent as they stepped into the castle and were led through a long series of winding corridors. Xehanort seemed familiar with the place, either that or he was really good at keeping his expression neutral, while Lea fought the urge to gawk at everything. The castle's architecture was strange, almost as though two or more styles had been mashed together to create one, but everything seemed to fit together well. Heavy stone carvings and brilliant colors blended together seamlessly with marbled columns and intricate tile floors. Large windows and mirrors filled the interior with light while tall spires soared to the sky above.

They finally reached a set of double doors, and the servant said something to Xehanort, who nodded. Xehanort put his hand on one of the door handles, but then he paused and looked at Lea.

"You will be shown to the room you will be staying in today and tonight shortly." he said seriously. "There will be other people waiting for you there. Do as they tell you, and give them no trouble, or you will answer to me. Do not embarrass me, Lea Rosso, or I will pack you straight back to Radiant Garden, do you hear me?"

Lea waved a hand at him. "Yeah, I got it."

Xehanort let go of the door handle and took a step towards him, eyes bright. "What was that? Do you want to try that again?"

Lea only barely managed to refrain from rolling his eyes. "Yes, Master Xehanort."

"Good. After lunch, we will go into town for what you need, and then we will join Lord Fiore for dinner. You will address him by his title unless he gives you permission to do otherwise. Is that understood?"

"Yeah," Xehanort glared at him, and Lea sighed. "Yes, Master Xehanort."

Xehanort held his gaze for a moment, and then he took a step back. "I will see you after lunch then."

"Wait..?" Lea's head snapped up as Xehanort stepped through the double doors and closed them behind him. "What do you mean 'after lunch'?"

The servant said something and began to walk away, and Lea scurried to follow him as he was led down the corridors to another door, this one a single. Inside was a large – by Lea's standards anyway – room, with a bed under the opposite window, and a door that presumably led to a bathroom on the right wall. Next to that door was an ornate, gilded floor mirror, and against the left wall was a small, round table, set with linen and china, and three women were standing in front of it, waiting.

There was another exchange that Lea didn't understand between his escort and the three women, before the man stepped out.

Lea shivered at the smiles the three directed his way. He heard the door shut behind him, and before he could even begin to process things, the three women had moved and were tugging him towards the door on the right, chattering to each other all the way. On the other side of the door was a bathroom, as he'd suspected, which had been done in vibrant shades of blue tile with gold trimming, and in the middle of it was the largest tub he'd ever seen. It was full of steaming water, with towels stacked neatly nearby, and an array of little glass bottles filled with various liquids lined up neatly on the edge.

Lea was tugged over to the tub, and he yelped when hands began pulling at his clothes, unzipping his coat, while one of the women knelt down and began to pull his boots off.

"What the hell are you doing! I can undress myself, thank you! Hey, wait! Hold on!"

They ignored him, and Lea felt his face begin to heat up as his coat was pulled off, followed by the tank top he'd been wearing under it. His bag, that he'd been carrying over one shoulder, had already been put aside, and soon he found himself practically tossed into the tub. Before he could make any move to stand up or find a way to get away from the three crazies that were in the room with him, what had to be a full bucket of water was dumped over his head, followed by two pairs of hands going to work on his hair.

"Hey, c'mon here!" He reached up to stop them, only to get his hands smacked away. The three began chattering to each other again as they worked the gel and hair spray that Lea had used to keep his hair spiked out, and Lea grumbled to himself. At least they weren't - !

"Seriously!" he yelped as one used a soft cloth to begin soaping him up. He reached up and snatched the cloth, and this time his hand wasn't smacked. "For the love of... I am going to kill Xehanort later..." Seeing no help for it, Lea began to wash himself as the women continued to work on his hair. After a few minutes they rinsed it and him by dumping more water over his head, and then they hauled him out of the tub. Once again they ignored his protesting as they dried him off, wrapped him in a large towel, and dragged him back into the other room.

Clothes had been laid out on the bed, and Lea found himself quickly dressed in a much simpler version of what Lumaria had been wearing earlier, before he was pushed down into a chair as the three women once again attacked his hair. They tugged and pulled on it, chittering to each other in that weird sounding language of theirs, and to Lea's ears it sounded like they were arguing about something. Finally, they seemed to come to some sort of agreement, and one of them began brushing his hair out. With the force they'd used in getting him bathed, Lea half expected her to just yank the knots out, but to his surprise, the woman was gentle, carefully untangling the knots and snarls until his hair was lying smooth and straight.

She then proceeded to undo all of that, sweeping the hair on the right side of his head over until it hung down by the left side of his face. Lea smelled something then, but he couldn't identify it as he felt it being worked into his hair, followed by several more brush strokes. He was then nudged to his feet, spun around, and walked up to the floor mirror aside the bathroom door.

Lea couldn't stop the small gasp that escaped him as soon as he saw his reflection; he doubted that his parents, had they survived the world's destruction, would have recognized him. _He_ barely recognized him. The clothes he was in were nearly a palette swap of Lumaria's: white trousers, red knee-length tunic with white embroidery, and white slippers. The red of the tunic was a near perfect match for his hair, only a shade or two darker, and the embroidery was nowhere near the elaborate scrollwork that he had seen on Lumaria's tunic, with only a few curving lines stitched in here and there.

His hair had no part and had been swept over to hang on the left. The smooth neatness that had been brushed into it earlier was gone, leaving it looking a bit like he'd just rolled out of bed. He reached up to touch it, but his hand was smacked away, hard enough that the sound echoed in the room. Lea yelped, shook his hand out, and then held it close to his chest as he was then grabbed by the shoulders and marched over to the small table that he'd noted before he'd been dragged into the bathroom.

He was none too gently pushed down into a chair, and after an indignant look at the one who'd pushed him, he let his gaze drift down to the table, and his eyes widened. He's never seen so much silverware in a single place before.

Before him, in the center of the setting, was a dinner plate. To its left, were three forks of varying sizes; on its right were two knives and a spoon. Above the knives and spoon were three glasses, and above the forks was a small plate with a butter knife lying diagonally across it. A napkin that was a very dark pink, (Rather like Lumaria's hair, Lea realized) was rolled tightly into a tube and held closed by an ornate metal ring. It was lying horizontally across the dinner plate, though no sooner had he made note of it than it was picked up by one of the women, unrolled, and placed across his lap.

The room's main door opened then, and he looked up to see another servant, carrying a small plate, walk into the room. The small plate was set in front of him, on top of the larger one, and the smell of meat and vegetables rose up from the triangular-shaped pastry in front of him. A finger pointed to a particular fork, and Lea hesitated a moment before reaching for it. His grip was quickly adjusted by the same person who had pointed to the fork, and Lea gulped and took a breath.

The next hour was the one of the most bizarre of his life as he learned the ins and outs, and the dos and don'ts, of a formal meal. The lesson came in the form of a full, five course meal: appetizer, soup, fish (He'd just _had_ fish for breakfast!) some kind of spicy chicken that came served on a bed of rice, and a coffee flavored sponge cake that had layers of a strange, soft cheese that he'd never had before. He felt full to bursting when it was done, and the three women as well as the man serving the meal had frowned in disapproval at the burp that had escaped him once he'd laid his napkin on the table to the left of his plate like they'd directed.

A knock at the door prevented the scolding that was no doubt about to happen, and Lea nearly sagged in relief to see Xehanort (Really, relieved to see Xehanort?) on the other side when it was opened. Lea stood up and groaned as his full stomach demanded that he sit back down, and he couldn't miss Xehanort's amused smile as he walked towards the door.

"Did you enjoy your lunch?" Xehanort asked as one corner of his mouth curled up into a smirk. Lea managed a half-hearted glare as he noted the Keyblade Master was now dressed in the same baggy pants and tunic outfit that Lea was in, only his tunic was green with golden embroidery that perfectly matched his eyes. His hair was also pulled back in what appeared to be a braid that started at his forehead and went down to the ends of his hair.

"I hate you right now." Lea groaned. "Why did I have to do all of that?"

"It's good information to have." Xehanort replied as he turned and began to walk down the hallway, and Lea sighed and began to follow him. "Trust me, Lea, tonight won't be the last time you have to dine with royalty."

"Oh yeah?" Lea snarked. "Why? Do you know any other kings that will share their table with you? Ones that don't want you dead, I mean?"

Xehanort stopped abruptly and then spun on his heel to look at him. "I am this close -" He held up his hand with his index finger and thumb a fraction of an inch apart. "- to just throwing you back through a portal. One would almost think that you don't want to find Isa, by the way that you're behaving."

"I do!"

"Then _why_ do you persist in this maddening behavior?"

"You know why."

Xehanort's eyes narrowed. "Enlighten me."

Lea growled under his breath. "I told you before, I don't fucking trust you, and I don't know why I allowed myself to be convinced to follow you!" he snarled. "There, happy now?"

"As I said before, I know that you don't, and I do not care. Now, this is your final warning. Lose the attitude, or you can go back to Radiant Garden and wait."

Xehanort glared at him for another second or two, and then he spun around and strode off down the corridor. Lea growled again and followed him.

The bustle of the market had died down some when they arrived, but it was still fairly busy. Xehanort took him by the arm and began to guide him to the correct stalls and shops. Their first stop was the blacksmith. Xehanort spoke in rapid fire Santili to the woman in charge of the place, who looked shocked for a moment, before she quickly directed them away from the blades that were out on display towards the back end of the shopfront.

There she laid out several blades, ranging in length from a short sword to a tiny knife. Some were plain, while others had intricate designs etched into the metal.

"What are you looking for?" Lea asked as he looked over the pieces.

"Good quality craftsmanship." Xehanort said in a hushed tone as he picked up one of the daggers to look it over.

"What, no cold iron to ward off any ghosts and ghouls?"

"Not in this universe."

"Won't iron kill some magical creatures?"

"So will a fireball to the face, or a keyblade to the skull. All you need is a good-quality steel blade, a holster to carry it in, and a sharpening stone to maintain the edge." Xehanort laid the blade back down and picked up another. "Now, hush up for a moment."

Lea huffed. "Fine." He stepped back and pretended to be interested in a dark corner of the room up near the ceiling as Xehanort continued to look over the blades. After a few minutes, he spoke in more Santili to the woman who ran the shop and handed over some munny. She shook her head and tried to give the munny back, but Xehanort refused to take it. He spoke to her some more, handed over more munny, and only then did he finally turn to Lea.

"Pull up your right sleeve, Lea."

Lea looked away from a spider building a web and shook his head. "Huh?"

Xehanort rolled his eyes. "Pull up your right sleeve." he repeated as he held some kind of leather cuff in his hands. Lea eyed the cuff; it was mostly a solid piece of brown leather, though it had a couple of narrow straps and buckles, along with a pouch or slot of some kind.

"Now, Lea, I don't have all day."  
Lea shook his head again and and pulled back the right sleeve of his red tunic. Xehanort wrapped the cuff around his forearm, using the two straps to buckle it on.

"How's that feel?" he asked. "Too tight? Not tight enough?"

"It feels kinda weird, actually." Lea murmured thoughtfully as he flexed his hand a few times.

"You'll get used to it. I don't want you to ever take this off, unless it's to sleep or bathe. Eventually, the leather will soften and conform to the shape of your arm, and you'll stop noticing that it's there."

"Sooo, what's this for?"

"This." Xehanort grasped Lea's hand and used that to hold his arm out so he could slide a dagger inside the slot that was on the inside of the cuff, facing Lea's body. "These are very handy to have. The holster has a quick release, so you can slide the blade down into your hand quickly and silently if you need it."

"Why not just use the keyblade then?"

"Your keyblade appears with a great deal of noise and a flash of light, hardly the thing to have if you're trying to be secretive. A hidden blade can save your life."

"Speaking from experience?" Lea couldn't hide the curiosity in his voice.

"You have no idea." Xehanort adjusted the straps again. "Here, flick your wrist."

"What? How?"

"Just flick your wrist, like you're waving someone off."

"Okay." Lea did so, and the dagger dropped down into his hand, blade down. He quickly grabbed the handle and held it up. "Seriously?"

"As I said before, having one of these can save your life, not to mention it's just plain easier to have it in an arm holster so it's always with you. Now let me show you how to secure it in there properly. You don't want it to just fall out when you don't need it, or even worse, not fall out when you do need it."

Xehanort spent a moment showing Lea how to secure the dagger in the holster, and then he slipped a tiny grindstone into another pouch. "That's for keeping the blade sharp. I'll show you how to do that later on. Now, let's get moving, we have a lot more to get before we have to be back at the castle in time for dinner."

 **OOOOOO**

Hours later, Lea dragged his feet behind Xehanort as they made the walk, or in Lea's case, the trudge, back up to the castle. The first thing they'd gotten after his dagger and holster was a new pack to carry everything in, and Xehanort had made him put it on right away. He'd adjusted the straps, instructed Lea on how the pack should be riding on his back and shoulders, and then had filled it with everything imaginable: a tent, a bedroll, fishing line, lure, and hook, a mess kit, and too many other things to name at the moment.

Lea had been quick to notice that, everywhere they went, Xehanort had been treated with a great deal of respect, and not a small amount of awe. Merchants seemed to fall all over themselves to serve him when he stopped at their stalls and storefronts, and there were a few occasions where he had to shove his munny at them to make them take it.

He kept silent as he followed Xehanort back into the castle and back to his room.

"Drop off your things and get washed up for dinner." Xehanort instructed him, and Lea sighed.

"What?" Xehanort asked, giving him an annoyed look.

"Those three women aren't going to... molest me again, are they?"

Xehanort's eyes narrowed again. "What do you mean? What did they do?"

"Apparently, they seemed to think that I was incapable of bathing and dressing myself. One of them even tried to scrub me down, and would have if I hadn't snatched the cloth out of her hands. And I really could have lived without them drying me everywhere, and I mean _everywhere_."

"I will speak to Lumaria about it then." Xehanort said in a firm voice. "Their behavior was uncalled for. He will handle it."

"He's not going to have them, like, executed or anything, is he?"

"No, but he will make sure that they know that their behavior was unacceptable. He holds the castle staff to very high standards and does not allow them to get away with anything inappropriate."

"Well, I just hope then that I don't do anything 'inappropriate' at dinner here and make an idiot of myself. Lumaria will laugh at me, I know he will."

Xehanort smiled at him, which struck him as almost unreal for a moment. "You will be fine, Lea. He knows that you are new to a formal table and won't hold it against you if you make a mistake. Now go get washed up. No doubt there are some new clothes in there for you to wear. Once you're ready, wait for me, and I will come and fetch you in a few minutes."

"What about the dagger? Do I leave it on?"

"At Lumaria's table, yes. He knows, and he's fine with it. It is the same if you were to dine with Lord Ansem. Now, I must go and ready myself. I will see you shortly. Do not wander off."

Lea bit back the sarcastic reply at the last second. "I'll be here." he said instead, and Xehanort nodded once, turned, and walked off down the hallway, and the soft sound of his slippers against the polished stone floor echoed as Lea turned and went inside his room.

As Xehanort had predicted, there was another suit of clothes lying neatly across the bed. Lea knew that he knew next to nothing about fashion (especially after spending ten years wearing the same thing every day) but even he could tell the clothes were the same style and cut as the ones he already had on. The embroidery was more elaborate and detailed, but Lea couldn't bring himself to care as he stripped off the red tunic he was wearing and wandered into the – thankfully free of women – bathroom to clean up a bit. Once that was taken care of, he dressed in the new clothes, put on the slippers that had been left for him, and ran his fingers through his hair the best he could to neaten it up a little, as the wind had blown in around quite a bit while in town.

He'd just finished that when there came a knock at the door. "Let's go, Lea." Xehanort said from the other side. Lea took a deep breath that was released as a sigh, opened the door, and stepped out into the hallway.

Xehanort was also dressed differently, and his hair looked like it had been rebraided, and he gave Lea a quick up and down before he nodded in approval. He set off down the hallway again, and Lea hurried to catch up.

"There are a couple of things you should be aware of before we reach the formal dining room." Xehanort said in a low voice as they continued on.

"Oh?" Lea raised an eyebrow. "Like what? Did Lumaria hire table dancers or something?"

Xehanort gave him a chiding look, but Lea swore he could see the corner of his mouth twitching for a second.

"First of all, you need to drop that casual use of his name. You do not have his permission to use it, and you will offend a great number of people with it. He is very well loved here, and it's never a good idea to anger the general population of a world."

"Like you wouldn't know anything about that, right?"

Xehanort growled but otherwise ignored Lea's remark. "His title is _Fiore Isa_ – use it."

"Ee-sah," Lea said slowly, feeling out the word. "Wonder how that's spelled?"

"In the alphabet you and I are used to, it's spelled the same way as your Isa's name. Thousands of years ago, before the keyblade war, the part of the world that became Meadowseele was home to people from two different cultures. Once they were isolated by the Sundering, the two cultures combined and blended into one, including their languages, their architecture, and their food."

"Well that explains a lot then, though I'm not sure how to feel about another version of Isa's name being that peacock's title."

"That 'peacock' is Fiore Isa to you, remember that. As for the word, it means 'lord' and is often used to refer to their gods as well. It's a word in a few other languages actually, so you'll no doubt encounter it again.

"Now, moving on, there will be two women at the table. One will be at the foot of the table. She is dark haired, dark eyed, and her name is Iyla. You may speak freely with her as long as you are polite and respectful."

"And the other?"

"She will be sitting across from us. You are not to speak to her at all, not a word. She looks a great deal like Lumaria, so you will know it's her right away. Try to avoid looking at her if at all possible."

"What, is she going to turn into a crazed hatchet murderer if someone pays her too much attention or something?"

"Carlotta Fiore is disgraced and dishonored. Lumaria only allows her to live because she is his mother. Forcing her to join him and his company at meals is part of her punishment."

Lea felt his eyes widen. "What the hell did she _do_?"

"That is not my story to tell. Now," Xehanort paused in front of a massive set of doors, with a stern faced servant standing on either side, "when we get in there, I will lead you to where we are sitting. We stand behind our chairs until Lumaria and Iyla are seated. Once we are seated, do not touch anything on your plate until he has done so for himself. Understood?"

"Yeah," Xehanort looked at him. "I mean, yes, Master Xehanort."

Xehanort looked at him for a moment longer, and then he turned and nodded to the two men standing on either side of the doors. They slowly swung the doors open, and Xehanort led Lea inside.

 **OOOOOO**

Dinner had been kinda interesting in some respects and awkward as hell in others, Lea thought later.

The dining room had been surprisingly small, as was the table in the center of it. The heavy, wooden table that was polished to a near mirror shine looked large enough to seat at least eight, but for this meal it only held five.

Lumaria's mother was seated across from Lea and Xehanort, just as Xehanort said she would be, and the pink haired woman made no attempt to look at anyone or anything aside from her plate. Lumaria, Xehanort, and Iyla ignored her completely, while the servants that were serving her meal only interacted with her place setting. They moved around her like she wasn't even there, and Lea could feel the sense of defeat from the other side of the table. Her clothing was very simple, with no ornamentation. Even the servants had nicer clothes than her. What had she done to warrant such treatment? Despite Xehanort's orders to ignore her, Lea kept finding himself glancing in her direction every few minutes.

Iyla, who looked to be a little older than Carlotta, was a bright, cheerful lady with hair as black as the night sky and eyes the color of rich, dark wood. She was a short thing, and Lea was willing to bet that the top of her head barely came up to his chest. She was dressed very similarly to Lea and Xehanort, but her tunic had more of a feminine cut and lacked the banded collar worn by the men at the table. To Lea's immense relief, she spoke his language, having learned it from Lumaria, and she was happy to talk to him about various subjects during the six course meal that followed.

She was careful, he was quick to note, to avoid talking about Lumaria's life before his time in the Organization. She also neatly avoided any mention of the first few months after his return. Everything else though, was fair game. He chatted with her easily, and she was able to give him a few hints here and there about the dining experience, as there were a lot more utensils on the table than there had been during his lesson earlier. As the main course arrived, Lea was shocked to learn that he had gotten most of the way through the meal with very little difficulty.

"It must be because of the pretty lady that I'm talking to." he said with a smile.

Iyla blushed, and he had the strongest feeling that if she could have swatted his arm, she would have. "You are such a charmer."

"Don't let him fool you." Lumaria said with a smirk from the head of the table. "He can be quite the fireball when he wants to be."

"Gods save us all." Xehanort muttered, and Lea felt the knot in his stomach ease as Lumaria and Iyla laughed.

The rest of the meal passed pleasantly, and Lea was surprised at how much he'd enjoyed himself by the time he was dismissed from the table.

"Lumaria has granted you permission to explore the castle." Xehanort told him outside the dining room. "If a door is open and no one is guarding it, then you may enter. However, do not stay up all night. Try to get to bed early, as we will be leaving straight after breakfast. So make sure your things are organized and ready to go before then." Lea nodded absently, and Xehanort turned and walked away. He met Lumaria down the hall, and the two of them walked off together, talking in Santili as they went. Lea watched them until they disappeared around a corner, and then he turned in another direction and wandered off, nearly waddling after the size of the meal he had consumed. It was still light out, and though he was starting to wind down, he wasn't ready for sleep yet, so he decided some exploration would be just the thing.

The castle was larger on the inside than it looked from the outside, and Lea quickly lost track of all the rooms and hallways he encountered as he wandered aimlessly through the various spaces. There was the ballroom, with its enormous chandeliers and three story high windows, a long hall with walls made of mirrored glass, an elaborate bath with brightly patterned tiles and greenery spilling from planters in the walls, a two story library that had every inch of shelving stuffed with books and scrolls, and the throne room that had been decorated with a theme flowers and climbing plants that looked like it was barely used, if ever. By the time he wandered into the last room of the night, he was wishing he'd gotten a drink from the servants before leaving the table, due to how much time he'd spent walking about.

His thirst was pushed to the back of his mind, however, when he found the last room.

It appeared to be a shrine or church of some kind. It was a decent size, about twice as large as the castle chapel in Radiant Garden, and it was lit with the soft glow of candles that were mounted on wall sconces, on stands that lined the center isle, and hung from the ceiling in chandeliers. Stained glass windows lined the walls on either side, but it was full dark outside by then, and their designs really couldn't be seen. There were no pews or any form of seating, but there were cushions lined up neatly in rows on either side of the center isle, and he supposed they were for kneeling.

At the far end of the room, up on a dais, was an altar or table of some kind, with a stone bowl. Inside that bowl was a single tongue of flame, burning a bright yellow-white, while producing no smoke. Behind it, mounted on the back wall, was a large circular portrait. It depicted a tall figure inside a large yellow-orange circle that had spikes coming out of it in all directions. The figure – Lea couldn't tell if it was male or female - was dressed in a golden robe that swept down from the shoulders and widened as it neared the feet, and it had white hair that flared out in all directions from its head like flames. Eyes of fiery gold stared down at Lea, and he took a step back as he was struck by an intense feeling of familiarity.

"That is Sole Isa." came Lumaria's voice, soft and reverent, from behind him, and Lea had to swallow his heart back down as the pink haired king came up to stand beside him. Lumaria's blue eyes were fixed upon the painting when he spoke. "He is our god of sun, fire, and warmth, and our chief deity."

Lea looked back at the painting. "Why the hell does he look like Xehanort?"

"Actually, the question should be: why does Xehanort look like Sole?"

Lea gave him a strange look. "What do you mean?"

"This -" He waved his hand at the portrait. "-was painted over 500 years ago, when the castle was built. Possessions aside, I think we can assume safely that Xehanort was not alive then."

"Knowing him, it wouldn't surprise me." Lea muttered, and then he paused as something occurred to him. "Is that why everyone was acting weird around him today?"

"I assume you mean that they were bowing and scraping and refusing to take his munny?"

"Got it in one."

"That doesn't surprise me. He has denied multiple times that he is Sole, but people will believe what they want to believe."

"Do _you_ believe he is Sole?" Lea asked, genuinely curious. What other explanation was there for why Lumaria let the man responsible for so much destruction come and go so freely?

Lumaria shook his head slightly, still staring at the painting on the wall. "I do not. I believe that he could be connected to Sole in some way, but I do not believe that he is Sole himself.

"Then why...?"

Lumaria turned to face him. "Why do I allow him to wander freely through my world and give him shelter in my castle?"

"Yeah, that."

"Because I was the first vessel he freed."

Lea was suddenly glad that he hadn't found that drink, for he would have surely sprayed it across the table and burning flame. "What? When? You were a vessel?"

Lumaria turned back to the painting. "I was."

"But Xemnas sent Marluxia to Castle Oblivion to die!"

"No, _Saïx_ sent Marluxia to die, along with Vexen and the others. Xemnas knew that Marluxia was planning to betray him, but he wasn't concerned, because-"

"Because he knew he would have control of him soon enough." Lea finished. "So do you think he knew that...?"

"That Saïx and Axel were planning to betray him? Undoubtedly. The possession would have made it impossible for Saïx to keep secrets from him, even if Saïx didn't know that."

"So why then didn't your eyes turn yellow?"

"He had embedded a piece of his heart into mine the day before Marluxia left for Castle Oblivion, and he had no chance to strengthen that bond before Marluxia was killed." Lumaria shrugged. "I knew it was there, of course, just as Saïx and Xigbar knew, which is why I tried to usurp control of the Organization in the first place.

"Upon waking here as a complete person once more, I had hoped that the fragment would be gone, but it was still there. Upon dealing with everything else, it was the last thing I needed. Iyla knew that something was wrong, though I refused to tell her what, and she insisted that asking Sole for help would be a good idea. She finally convinced me to try, and no sooner had I asked the question than Xehanort appeared, and broke the possession in front of many of the castle staff." Lumaria smirked. "I'm sure that you can imagine how people reacted to that."

"Their king had just been helped by a god. I imagine that they went nuts."

"That they did, though I wasn't the king then. It did, however, make it much easier to kick my father off the throne not long after."

Lea grinned. "After all, you had Sole's backing."

"Exactly."

The two of them shared a moment of amusement, before Lea sobered.

"Do you really think he's changed?" he asked quietly, half expecting Xehanort to wander in and overhear him asking.

"I do." Lumaria said simply.

"I don't trust him."

"Of course you don't, and I can't say that I blame you, not after everything that he's done. Just... try to give him the benefit of the doubt. Freeing his vessels makes no sense if he's trying to start another Keyblade War."

Lea took a deep breath. "Right, though... I much preferred the old Xehanort, the one who didn't give a damn about his title, to this one."

Lumaria laughed quietly. "Come on. I'll lead you back to your room. You don't want to miss breakfast tomorrow."

"Right, because Xeh-xeh would never let me hear the end of it. He's stricter than my folks were."

They began to walk out of the chapel, and Lumaria snorted. "At least you didn't have my parents. My mother is an _Agochar_ for a reason."

"What the hell is an... _Agochar_?" Lea asked, stumbling over the pronunciation of the strange word, as they walked down the halls.

Lumaria ignored the question, and Lea opened his mouth to repeat it, but the sound of a piano being played touched his ears then, interrupting him.

"Who is that playing?" he asked instead, and Lumaria smirked at him.

"You will see soon enough."

Lea blinked. "Okay." The music increased in volume as they walked, and Lea felt the urge to just stand still and listen. If asked, he would freely admit that he knew nothing about music other than that he enjoyed listening to it, but even he could tell that whomever was playing was highly skilled. Ahead of them, warm light from an open door spilled out into the darkened hallway, and Lumaria slowed his steps and held a finger to his lips.

"He normally keeps the door shut while he's playing." he explained in a whisper. "He prefers the privacy, and he won't be happy if he catches us watching. So just glance in and keep walking."

"C'mon, it's not like it's Xehanort playing, is it?" Lea said, and Lumaria's smirk widened. "It is, isn't it?"

They stepped into the warm pool of light then, and he looked through the open door. It _was_ Xehanort, seated at a grand piano constructed from rosewood, with his back to the door. His fingers were flying across the keyboard as he swayed with the music, and Lea only stared until he felt Lumaria's hand on his shoulder, urging him on.

"I didn't know he played." Lea commented in a whisper as they continued on. "I don't remember anything like that before."

"If his amnesia was as severe as rumor had it, then it was likely that he simply couldn't remember that he knew how." Lumaria replied as the sound of the piano faded as they walked away from it.

The rest of the walk back to Lea's room was silent, and Lea was left standing at the door, realizing that Lumaria had neatly dodged his earlier question about an _Agochar_ as the king walked away.

Inside, he found sleep clothes laid out across the bed, and he went into the bathroom to take care of business, before changing clothes and crawling into bed. He expected his thoughts to keep him awake for a while, but to his surprise, he was asleep within a few minutes.


	3. White Room

**Zackarix - Explanation will be coming in due time. Xemnas will also be getting a mention here and there as the story moves on. For now though, enjoy the chapter, and thanks for reading. :)**

 **3.  
White Room  
**

 _Dear Isa,_

 _What the hell happened last night?_

 _No, seriously, what was all of that?_

 _Yeah, yeah, Xehanort was a prick in the morning, but you know, as the day went on, he almost seemed... nice. Strange, right? It almost made it hard to believe that this was the same guy that had ripped our hearts out years ago._

 _And goddamn - Lumaria. It should be illegal for a man to be that pretty. He looked completely different than he did the last time I saw him. He looked... well, kingly. (Don't laugh!) He was still friendly to me, at least, though I practically got molested by some of his servants. Apparently, they seemed to think I couldn't bathe and dress myself, but I was surprised when Xehanort said that they'd overstepped their bounds and that he'd talk to Lumaria about it. Would you believe it, because I'm not sure if I do._

 _And let's not forget the shopping trip. You know, he'd said he'd pay for everything I needed, but I was still expecting him to pick things out and then slap me with the bill, but he didn't. He paid for everything, even when he had to force the shopkeepers to take his munny._

 _And speaking of that! Apparently the folks on Meadowseele think Xeh is one of their gods. Damned if he doesn't look like their sun god, Sole Isa (Yeah, apparently your name means "lord" over here.), and since a lot of the servants saw Norty break his possession of Lumaria, right after he asked Sole for help, then that just reinforced their belief. Makes me wonder if Norty planned it on purpose. He does Lumaria a favor and gains the clandestine assistance of an entire world, because really, who's gonna admit to seeing him there after that? That's if they even ask the right question. Ask about someone named Xehanort, and the people there will just say no, because really, as far as they are concerned, it's not Xehanort, but Sole that's wandering through town and staying at the castle on a regular basis._

 _Weird, right?_

 _Lumaria said to give him the benefit of the doubt, but really, I don't think I can. He's been not as bad as I had thought so far, but who knows how long until that changes?_

 _Anyway, I gotta end this now, since I have to be at breakfast soon. I woke up early (Shocking, I know.) so I figured I might as well squeeze in a letter before we have to leave. I dunno where Xehanort is hauling me to next, though it's probably too much to ask for the food to be as good as it is here. Wherever it is, let's hope I leave it with my heart still where it belongs._

 _Still missing you,_

 _Lea_

 **OOOOOO**

"So where are we going?" Lea asked as they walked out of town towards the empty field where they'd slept two nights before. He hefted his pack up and wondered, not for the first time, if he should have let Xehanort spell the pockets of his coat. Their nice clothes had been left behind in Lumaria's castle for the next time they visited, and they were back in their black coats and boots as they hiked.

"To a world long forgotten by the living." Xehanort said evenly as he walked just a few steps ahead.

"Well if that doesn't sound ominous." Lea muttered.

"Oddly fitting, I think." Xehanort commented as they walked on. "The world in question is very dangerous for those unprepared."

Lea stopped. "So why are we going there then?"

"Because I have my reasons that I will not explain here. Now stop lagging behind and keep up."

"Why in the hell did we have to come all the way out here? Why couldn't we just leave from the castle?"

"Because the people back there think of me as a god, and I'd like to keep it that way. Someone flying away on a keyblade, which they have seen before, could damage that belief."

"Gotta keep your ego properly stroked, I guess." Lea muttered to himself, and no sooner had he finished the sentence than a deluge of freezing cold water suddenly dumped itself over his head. He shrieked as it soaked his hair and ran down inside the collar of his coat.

"I heard that." Xehanort said from ahead of him.

"What the fuck did you do that for!"

"For your smart mouth."

"Like you never smarted off to whichever poor fool taught you."

Xehanort was suddenly standing in front of him, and Lea blinked. He hadn't seen him move. Xehanort's eyes were glowing and power rolled and crackled about him; it was like standing ahead of a powerful storm.

"Master Limahl," Xehanort said, his voice coming out as an angry hiss, "was a kind, generous, loving man that gave his all to ensure that Eraqus and I could live our lives the best we could. He literally saved us both. Do not _ever_ insulthim again."

Lea didn't say anything; he couldn't as Xehanort's presence made the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stand up.

"Am I understood?" Xehanort asked, still speaking in a hiss, and Lea nodded frantically.

"Yes!"

"Yes what?"

"Yes, Master Xehanort!"

Xehanort nodded sharply, and then he turned around and continued walking. Lea, after taking a moment to stop his legs from shaking, followed.

 **OOOOOO**

A few hours' flight later saw them flying high above a larger world, filled with dense forests that were brilliant shades of red and orange. Scattered among the trees were were abandoned, crumbling buildings, and some distance away, Lea thought he could see the remains of what appeared to be a decent sized city.

Xehanort paid none of it any attention. He flew on, flying low over the trees, and as Lea followed him, he became aware of a large group of Heartless below them. No, he realized, "large" was the wrong word. It was simply the largest gathering of the creatures he'd ever encountered, and though he couldn't see them through the thick canopy, he could sense the countless pairs of yellow eyes that were surely watching him as they came down for a landing in a clearing.

As they came in, they seemed to cross some invisible barrier, and the feeling of the Heartless seemed to vanish. Lea shook himself as they touched down in front of a small, one room shack.

"Come inside." Xehanort said as he dismissed his keyblade and went in. Lea eyed the small building with a critical eye. It looked like it had been well-constructed, but time had taken a toll on it, and it now looked weathered, beaten, and run down. The paint was peeling in multiple places, weeds choked the area around it, vines and other greenery had covered one of the walls and part of the roof, the brick chimney was cracked and crumbling, the door was hanging crookedly, and shingles were missing from the visible parts of the roof.

"We don't have all day, Lea." came Xehanort's voice from inside, and Lea sighed and slumped his shoulders for a moment before we straightened up and followed Xehanort inside.

His jaw fell up open when he walked in; the inside couldn't have looked more different than the outside. The space was small, no more than a few hundred square feet, neat, and well kept. The wall at the other end of the single room was nearly filled with a cobblestone fireplace with the stones inside and over the hearth blackened from heavy use. A hinged hook hung over the empty hearth, and wood was stacked in neat piles nearby, with a small metal box next to them. On the right side sat a large wooden table with a cabinet under it. A smaller, simpler table with two chairs sat in the center of the rough hewn floor. Across from the door were a pair of narrow cots, each with a chest at their foot. Lamps dotted the walls in a few places, with one hanging from the ceiling over the table, but they were dark and didn't look like they had been used in a while.

Xehanort shrugged his coat off, showing the plain white shirt and etched leather wrist cuffs that he wore under it, and hung it up on a hook beside the door. He then peeled off his gloves, showing the heavy ornate ring that marked him as heir to Radiant Garden's throne that he wore on his right hand, as well as the heavy watch on his left wrist.

"Drop your pack on one of those beds." Xehanort said, waving his hand vaguely in that direction. "I would advise hanging your coat up as well, and then I want you to join me outside."

Lea blinked. "Okay."

"Hurry up." Xehanort added as he disappeared through the door and into the bright sunshine outside.

"What the hell does he want now?" Lea muttered as he did as instructed. He did not, however, remove his coat. He stepped outside into the weed choked yard and absently rubbed his arms. Xehanort was waiting for him several feet away with his keyblade out and ready, and Lea shivered at the sight of it.

"Normally, the art of wielding a keyblade without looking like a clumsy fool trying to impress a girl is taught gradually, over the course of several years." Xehanort said in an even tone. "However, we do not have time for that. So I am afraid that you are going to have to learn the hard and fast way."

"What?" was the only thing Lea had time to say as Xehanort suddenly streaked towards him, almost too fast to be seen, and he jerked his head back when the edge of No Name suddenly appeared right in front of him, nearly touching his nose.

"If that had been a serious attack," Xehanort commented, "you would be dead now."

Lea was silent, too busy staring at the blade that was so close he could almost feel it.

Xehanort dropped his arm and stepped back. "Defend yourself."

"How?"

"Summoning your keyblade is a good start."

"Oh, yeah, right." Lea muttered as he looked down at his right hand. Proud Flame appeared in a flash just as the sound of rustling clothing fell on his ears. A second later, he found himself lying flat on his back in the dry grass, staring up at the sky.

Xehanort was looking down at him. "Never take your eyes off of your enemy. I could have easily taken your head off while you were looking away. Now stand up and try again."

Lea grumbled as he dragged himself to his feet, and his back protested the movement after being knocked so hard to the ground. He looked over at Xehanort, who had backed away several steps again, and then he blinked as he seemed to vanish. A second later, Lea found himself lying on his back for the second time.

"Get up!"

Lea got to his feet again, just in time for Xehanort to come at him a third time. "Defend yourself, Lea!"

Lea reacted without thinking, bringing up his keyblade and holding it across his chest. There was a _clang!_ as No Name struck, and though Lea was rocked backward, he stayed on his feet, and the swing was blocked.

Xehanort backed off. "Good." he said with a nod. "Again!"

No Name's swing came higher this time, and though Proud Frame was nearly wrenched from his hand, Lea was able to block that as well.

"Again!"

 **OOOOOO**

Three hours later, Lea dragged himself inside the small shack. Muscles he hadn't known he had were aching fiercely, and sweat was dripping from his face. He collapsed onto the bed that he'd tossed his pack down earlier and groaned.

"Don't fall asleep, Lea." Xehanort told him. "If you do, your muscles will lock up painfully. Here," he added as he approached, a cup of water in his hands, "drink that, and then go outside and take a fast walk around the cabin for a few minutes to cool down."

"Do I have to?"

"No, but then I don't want to hear any whining when you try to stand up later."

"Fiiiiiine." Lea grumbled as he sat up and took the cup that Xehanort was holding out to him. It contained water, the most delicious water that Lea had ever had, and he quickly gulped it down.

Xehanort took the empty cup back. "Now, go take a walk. Stay within the clearing, but keep moving until I get back."

Lea forced himself to stand, wincing as his legs protested the movement. "Wait, where are you going?"

"To find dinner."

"Dinner? But we just had breakfast before we came here."

"On another world. It is late afternoon here. Now, go for a walk. I will be back soon." Xehanort ducked out the crooked door, and Lea stared after him for a moment before going outside himself.

Xehanort was already out of sight, and the sun was sinking low in the sky. Lea sighed and rubbed at his arms again, and his breath misted in front of him. He'd had to shed his coat during his training (if one could call it that) earlier, and now he wished he'd thought to grab it on his way out the door. A breeze blew through, rustling the dry grass and the turning leaves on the trees, carrying with it the hint of the oncoming winter. Despite years of moving between worlds on orders from the Organization, he still found it strange how the worlds could have such variance in their seasons and days. Meadowseele had appeared to be in its spring, and Radiant Garden had been in summer. Now this world was clearly in its autumn.

He set off at a slow walk around the small cabin, eyeing the invisible line that kept the Heartless away as he went. He couldn't see them in the deepening shadows under the treeline, but he could sense them. Their presence wasn't strong at all, and he could easily ignore it if he wished, but he knew they were there and watching him nonetheless.

His legs ached as he increased his speed to a more brisk pace, and he wondered how Xehanort was going to find dinner with all the Heartless that were no doubt tailing him.

What if Xehanort lost his heart again?

What if he never came back to the cabin?

Lea felt his mouth curl up into a smile as his thoughts continued along that vein. If Xehanort never came back, he wouldn't have to worry about this "Master Xehanort" business. He wouldn't have to worry about Xehanort attacking him with that damned keyblade of his. He could go back home to Radiant Garden!

Aaaaand wait for Isa to come home.

Damn it.

Lea heaved a sigh and hung his head as he started his third lap. Xehanort's warning about what the council would do to Isa once they no longer needed him played through his mind, and he shivered in a way that had nothing to do with the dropping air temperature. He pushed those thoughts to the side then and tried to lose himself in the numbing task of walking in a circle.

He'd just started his sixth lap, and the sun was vanishing below the treeline when Xehanort reappeared, carrying a small cloth sack in one hand and a dead rabbit in the other.

"Finish your lap and then come inside." he said as he walked into the cabin, and Lea shrugged and did as he'd been bid.

"How do you feel?" Xehanort asked once he was inside, and the door had been closed behind him."Still sore?"

"Yeah, some."

The lamps were lit, though Lea couldn't see any flames through the glass covers, and the room looked much warmer and more welcoming than it had earlier. Xehanort emptied the sack he'd been carrying onto the counter by the fireplace, revealing a handful of medium sized potatoes, a few carrots, two stalks of celery, a handful of mushrooms, and some green onions. He retrieved a bowl from the storage area under the counter, and the open door allowed Lea to catch a glimpse of several bottles of various sizes as well as a few pots and pans stored there. Xehanort set the bowl down on the counter and nodded his head at it, and Lea felt his eyes widen as it suddenly filled up with water.

"How do you do that?"

"I am a water elemental, that is how. Now," Xehanort looked at him. "wash and peel the potatoes and carrots, and then cut them up into small chunks. Dice the onion and celery up fine. I'm going to go butcher the rabbit outside."

"Oh, okay."

Xehanort paused on his way towards the door, rabbit in hand."You _do_ know how to peel and chop vegetables right?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Good. Get it done before I come back in. The faster everything's prepared, the sooner we can eat."

"Right." Xehanort walked out the door then, closing the door behind him.

Lea set to doing his task, suddenly grateful for all those times he'd had to help with dinner preparations as a child. Years of helping in the kitchen made the job quick and easy, and he had it all wrapped up by the time Xehanort came back in, his hands bloodied, but full of meat.

"Done?" he asked, and Lea nodded.

"Good," Xehanort replied, and he used the water in the bowl to wash the blood from his hands after he'd dumped the meat on the counter. "Have you ever started a fire without magic before?"

"No,"

"Then come over to the fireplace. You're about to learn."

"Why would I ever have to do that? I'm a fire elemental."

Xehanort gave him an impatient look. "As I've already explained, your magic might not always be available to you. You could be exhausted, too sick to concentrate, or on a world where magic of any kind is met with hostility. Now come here."

Lea barely restrained himself from rolling his eyes again, but he stepped over and spotted a piece of flat piece of a dark gray stone with a sharp edge, and a shiny piece of steel, formed into a loop that reminded him of a knuckle buster, lying on the wooden mantel.

"Go over to that metal box by the firewood and open it." Xehanort instructed him, and Lea resisted another eye roll. The box contained a large pile of dry grass, slivers of wood, and a bundles of twigs in various sizes. "Take some of that grass and come back to the fireplace."

"Can't I just use the matches you got me?" Lea asked.

"Normally, yes, but I still want you to know how to start a fire without them. Now get over here."

Xehanort knelt down in front of the large stone hearth, and once Lea had joined him, he gave him a quick lesson in making a kindling nest out of the dried grass.

"Keep a small amount of it in yours hands though. You will need that when it comes time to strike the spark. Now grab the flint and steel off of the mantelpiece." Once Lea had stood up and done that, Xehanort had him kneel back down. "Now the easiest way to do this is to hold the flint firmly in your left hand, with your thumb lying across the top. Stuff that bit of grass I had you keep back under your thumb as well, as it will be easiest to catch a spark that way."

"Like this?" Lea asked, holding out his hand for inspection.

Xehanort nodded. "Just like that. Now loop the index, middle, and ring fingers of your right hand through the steel and close your hand into a fist."

"I could punch someone with this."

"You could, and you would do a lot of damage, but that's not what we're here for. I want you to angle the flint up, not straight up, but enough that you can use it to scrap slivers of metal off of the steel."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. That's what creates the spark, and the friction makes it glow with heat." He reached over and positioned Lea's hand at the proper angle, about 30 degrees, Lea thought. "Always have a glove on the hand holding the flint. The sparks are going to fly, and they will hurt for a short while if they land on bare skin."

"Good thing I haven't taken my gloves off then."

"Indeed. Now the goal here is to strike the flint with the steel, with a glancing blow, just enough to shave a little bit of metal off. Bring your hand up, and then swing it down quickly."

Lea's first attempt resulting in him nearly knocking the flint out of his hand, but Xehanort simply told him to try again. He missed the flint entirely on his second attempt. His third attempt came at a wrong angle and didn't produce a spark. Finally, his fourth attempt was perfect, and several sparks went flying in all directions, including one that landed on the grass held pinched between his thumb and the flint.

"Oh, I did it!" he said in a voice lit with excitement.

Xehanort smiled at him. "You did. Now blow on -"

Xehanort wasn't able to finish the sentence, Flushed with his success, Lea blew on the small, glowing ember, but he blew too hard, and it winked out.

"Well, I was going to say 'blow on it gently' but I suppose you now know that for the next time."

Lea felt his cheeks heat up a bit, and he nearly sighed in relief when Xehanort didn't comment on it. It took him three more tries to get a spark, and two more tries after that to get one that landed on the tinder. This time, he was more careful with his breath, and soon the small ember was glowing brightly and smoking slightly.

"Carefully lower it down and set the ember on the nest you've made, and don't stop blowing on it." Xehanort said in a quiet tone.

Lea did as instructed, and after several seconds, he was rewarded when the small ember suddenly became a small flame that began to quickly consume the small nest of tinder. Following Xehanort's instructions, he fetched some twigs from the metal box and added them, and he grinned widely when he saw them catch. This was followed by larger twigs, then small branches, and then finally, a single log. A second one was then added, and Lea sat back, unable to keep the smile from his face as the he watched the small fire burn, filling the room with warmth and flickering light.

Xehanort smiled at him. "Well done, Lea."

Lea scratched at his head. "Uhh, thanks. I didn't expect that to be so..." He paused, trying to find the right word.

"Satisfying?" Xehanort said as he stood up and moved towards the counter.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Doing things by hand often is There's just something about being able to say 'I did this myself with no help.' Now, go dump that bloody water in the bowl outside, while I start cooking."

"Do you need me to do anything else?"

"No, so after you dump the water, go sit at the table and try not to fall asleep. If memory serves me right, you never really learned how to cook, and that is something else that I will teach you, but not tonight."

Lea did so, and then he went and sat down in one of the rickety looking chairs and watched as Xehanort pulled a deep, iron pot out from under the counter and hung it over the fire. The room went quiet save for the crackling of the fire as Xehanort worked and Lea watched.

"So, how did you learn to cook?" Lea asked after a few minutes had passed.

Xehanort didn't answer at first. Instead he put the now flour coated pieces of meat into the skillet with a little oil. The sound of sizzling meat filled the small cabin.

"Master Limahl taught me." Xehanort finally replied once the sizzling had died down some. "He told Eraqus and me that one should always be able to take care of themselves, no matter where you were."

"Did you like learning that?"

"I loved it. I'd gone without multiple times as a child, and..." Xehanort paused for a long moment. "Let's just say that I intended to never let such a thing happen again if I could help it. Master also taught us how to forage, hunt, and trap, and I took those lessons to heart and excelled at them."

"What about Eraqus?"

" _Master_ Eraqus did not enjoy it. He especially disliked wilderness survival, but he was fully aware that Master would not have allowed him to skip it, so he went along with it."

Lea hesitated for a few seconds. "What about Ventus? Did you teach him?"

Xehanort went still, and Lea felt the hair on his arms and the back of his neck stand up as the lamps and fire seemed to dim suddenly. "Yes," he finally said, and the light levels in the room returned to normal. "I did."

Lea shivered and slumped down in the chair. What had compelled him to ask that? Was he out of his mind?

Xehanort said nothing else; he merely turned the meat over in the pot, which sent the smell of it spiraling up into the air. Lea's stomach growled appreciatively.

"I think someone might be a little hungry." Xehanort said casually. Lea didn't answer. He only folded his arms on the table and laid his head down on them. He then watched as Xehanort fetched a few more things out from under the counter, as well as the cut up potatoes and carrots and added them to the pot. Water, and what looked like red wine followed. Spices were added to the pot, and he gave it all a good stir before putting a lid on it and swinging it out so it wasn't sitting directly over the fire. He then stood up, wiped his hands off and then moved to retrieve something from the pockets of his coat, before he sat down at the table across from Lea.

"It's time for you to learn exactly what we are dealing with." he said as he laid a small leather bound book on the table between them. He spun it around to face Lea and opened it to the first page as the lamp over the table brightened.

The image on the page in front of him was of an old man, with wavy, iron gray hair that just lightly brushed his shoulders. Dark eyes peered out of a tanned face that seemed to have wrinkles carved deeply into it, and even though it was only a drawing in a book, Lea had the craziest thought that the old man was looking right at him and could actually see him.

"This is Master Beldinas." Xehanort said in a quiet voice. "He is the head of the Council of the Keys. He is a handful of years older than me, and he assumed his position not longer after Master Eraqus and I completed our Mark of Mastery. There is a persistent rumor that he reached the headship by killing his master, who had held it previously, but Master Limahl always dismissed that. What is known is that the man is very powerful, which explains why he was able to get, and hold onto, his position so young. Master warned me before I left the Land of Departure to become a Seeker, to avoid him if I could help it and get away from him as quickly as possible if I couldn't."

Lea looked up from the book to look at Xehanort. "Why?"

"There are reasons, and I will explain them later. Moving on." He turned the page, revealing another drawing, of a man that appeared to be younger than Master Beldinas by at least a few years. His hair was short and nearly white, while his skin and eyes were very dark.

"Master Shini," Xehanort explained "Beldinas' second. His magic is not very strong, all things considered, but he hits like a sack of bricks and can move deceptively fast. He joined the Council after the death of his master, who had the position before him."

Lea looked up from the book. "Do you have to inherit the right to be on this council?"

"Yes," Xehanort nodded. "It's passed down from master to apprentice." He turned the page again, revealing an image of a woman, with curly red hair that spilled over her shoulders, pale skin that was splashed with freckles, and blue-green eyes. "Master Aya. Beldinas' lover by all accounts and not above using her charms to get what she wants elsewhere. There are tales going about that she is the Council's covert assassin.

"Not long after she joined the Council, she came to the Land of Departure and tried to convince Master Limahl, who was on his deathbed then, to surrender the castle to her."

"Seriously?"

Xehanort nodded. "She did. She failed, of course. Though Master was too weak to even feed himself at that point, his mind was still sharp and clear, and he knew what she was doing. The castle's wards were nominally under Master Eraqus' control, and he used them to force her out of the castle when she wouldn't leave. She's been obsessed with gaining control of the castle ever since."

"That explains why the Council is so pissed at Aqua."

" _Master_ Aqua, Lea, but yes, that is correct." Xehanort let go of the book, and it closed as he stood up and moved over to the fireplace. "The Council has been trying to get control of the Land of Departure for decades, but it wasn't until Beldinas came to power that they really started to push it." He gave the stew a quick stir.

"Why? What's so important about it?"

"Aside from the waypoint, you mean?" Xehanort returned to the table, but he did not reach for the book. "I have only suspicions. I was not chosen as Master's heir, so I've no doubt that there are things about the castle that I was never told."

"I bet you were bummed about that."

"At first, but he explained his reasons why, and I understand why he made the decision he did. Now, as we were." Xehanort reached for the book and opened it up to another page. "Beldinas, Shini, and Aya are the three principal players of the Council, but the remaining four, starting with Master Crysa here, are not to be taken lightly."

Master Crysa looked like something about of a ghost story, Lea thought. Her skin was nearly milk white, which contrasted sharply with her black hair and gray eyes. Though the drawing only showed her from the shoulders up, he had the feeling that she was very tall and lithe in build.

"She is the youngest member of the council, and from what I've seen and heard, she's also Beldinas' lover. Whether she's aware that Aya is also filling that role is something that I can't say for sure. I've had the misfortune of meeting her a few times back before I lost my memory, and a more self righteous, uptight child you will never meet. She firmly believes that the Council is the ultimate authority, and that they're just looking out for the good of the worlds. Her stupidity aside, she is very powerful in magic, though nowhere near my level. Physical attacks aren't her strong suit, from what I've seen, but she still knows how to handle a keyblade."

Xehanort closed the book and pulled it back across the table towards him. "The remaining three members of the Council: Masters Josef, Astrid, and Iria, I know almost nothing about outside of their names. Still, one doesn't get on the Council by being weak, so I want you to be careful while we are out and about. Those other three could come at us from anywhere, and we would never know until it was too late." He got up to stir the stew again.

"What is the point of the Council?" Lea asked. "I'd never heard of them until they took Isa, so what purpose do they serve?"

Xehanort didn't look up from the bubbling stew. "Originally, they were formed after the Keyblade War to prevent such destruction from ever happening again. They took control of the scattered survivors and helped to rebuild the shattered remains of the worlds."

"So they had a good purpose."

"At first, yes, but that didn't last." Xehanort stood up and moved back to his chair. "No one is quite sure when they became corrupt. I imagine that it happened slowly over time, but I do know that by the time Master Alexia took a neglected child named Limahl into her home, they had become convinced that their way was the only way. In the years after the war, one had to have permission from them to take on an apprentice, to better prevent our numbers from growing too quickly as it did before the war erupted. Of course as each individual wielder went their separate way after the restoration was done, the Council's authority waned. Some have gone their entire lives without ever hearing from them. Master Mickey, from what I've heard, only knows of them through Master Yen Sid and only actually met them recently, after they took Isa."

"So can they still prevent someone from taking on an apprentice?"

"No, they can whine and throw a fit about it, as they did when Master Alexia took in Master Limahl, and when he did the same for me 33 years later, but they have no real authority anymore. This is the most active that they've been in a few centuries."

Lea rested his head in the palm of his right hand and drummed the fingers of his left on the well-worn surface of the table. "I wonder why."

"I imagine that my recent activities have something to do with it. Scratch that, I _know_ that they do. The Council has always been interested in me, enough that Master saw fit to warn me about them before I left home after my Mark of Mastery."

"Why? I can get why they would want to watch you after everything with the Heartless and Organization XIII, but why before then?"

Xehanort summoned his keyblade and laid it across the table then. "Because of No Name."

Lea looked down at the large keyblade in front of him; being this close to it allowed him to see how large it really was. He hadn't been this close to it since...

He shivered and looked away for a second until he heard the sound of it being picked up and dismissed.

"For what it's worth, Lea," Xehanort said quietly, "I am sorry about what I did to you and the others. I offer no excuse for my actions, only my assurance, as meaningless as it probably is to you, that I will never do such a thing again."

Lea took a shuddering breath and looked at him. "You'll have to excuse me if I don't quite believe you."

"I know; you've made that very clear over the past few days, and I understand."

"Then why are you being such an asshole?"

"I said 'I understand.' I didn't say that I would let you walk all over me because of it. No Keyblade Master will allow an apprentice to mouth off as you have, and keeping a lid on you is the best way to make sure you actually pay attention to what I'm teaching you."

"Are you sure about that?"

"If I hadn't been strict with you earlier, would you have done the laps around the cabin without me to keep an eye on you?"

Lea opened his mouth and then shut it."Shit. No, I wouldn't have."

"Well, there you go." Xehanort stood up and went to stir the stew again.

Lea looked around the small cabin, noting that it was full dark outside. "Where are we exactly? Won't someone see the lights and come check this place out?"

"This world is abandoned." Xehanort said from the fireplace. "Heartless overran it about 30 years ago, give or take a couple of years. A handful of the residents escaped, but the rest were taken by the Heartless. You and I are the only living humans here."

Lea whipped his head around to stare at him. "What the hell happened here? I thought the Heartless invasion didn't start until Radiant Garden fell."

Xehanort sat back down, with the scent of the cooking stew clinging to his clothes and hair. "This world, from what I was told, was once a bastion of human greed and misery. Residents of it were either fabulously wealthy or completely poverty stricken. There was no middle class, or even something that could be considered lower class. The poorest families on Radiant Garden are miles above what the poor here had to endure. The greed, selfishness, and misery called to the Heartless like a beacon, and over time, their numbers gradually increased, until there was no one left.

"Master Limahl sealed the world's keyhole, but with no way to change the peoples' attitudes, there was nothing he could do to stop the invasion."

"What's to stop the Heartless from getting us then?"

"Wards. They're set up around the clearing, and the Heartless cannot cross them. I'm sure that you felt them when we passed through them. Master Limahl emplaced them years ago, and they have slowly gained strength over time whenever someone magical is in the cabin."  
"So we're powering them up simply by being in here?"

Xehanort nodded. "Mhmm. Casting magic within the circle also helps, as they will capture some of it and use it to strengthen themselves."

"So like the Land of Departure then."

"Not quite."

"What do you mean?"

"I did considerable damage to that world, and then Master Aqua reshaped it. The wards were severely damaged by my actions, and then torn apart by hers. They are back, but they are much, much weaker than they had been. It will take them centuries to regain what they have lost."

"So the Council...?"

"Could waltz right on in if they wanted to. It is only the wards' reputation that is stopping them."

"Does Aqua know?"

"I am sure that _Master_ Aqua knows. After all, she is the one connected to them, and no doubt she's also figured out how Master Eraqus always knew when she and Terra were up to something that they shouldn't have been."

Lea scratched the back of his head. "Wait, so you're saying that she could use the wards to tell where other people are and what they are doing?"

"Not what they are doing, but where they are yes. So if someone is in an unexpected place or somewhere where they're not supposed to be, then you can safely assume that they are up to no good. It certainly got Eraqus and me caught a time or two." Xehanort smiled. "I still remember the letter that I received when Master Limahl gave over control of the wards to Eraqus. It basically consisted of 'It was the damned wards!' and him grumbling about it."

Lea chuckled and then paused. "Could you do the same with the wards here, tell where I am, I mean?"

Xehanort gave him a smug smile. "Yes. They let me know that you were doing what I had told you earlier, and if you try to leave, I will know the instant you cross the ward line."

"Seriously!"

"Seriously. Now don't take it personally, Lea. It's just a side function of the wards keeping us safe here, and they were standing long before you were born. This is one of many little safe houses that I have scattered across the worlds. This one is the only one on an uninhabited world and no one knows of it besides the two of us." Xehanort's expression grew serious. "If we ever get separated, and you need a place to hide, come here and wait. As soon as I can, I will come here to find you. Depending on what's going on, it might take me a while, but I will come back here if it's at all possible."

"Do you think that...?"

"That something could happen, causing us to get separated? Absolutely. It is a good possibility. The Council has been pursuing me in one way or another for years, and once they learn that I've taken you as my apprentice, they will come after you as well, especially since you are nowhere near skilled enough to fend them off."

"And you are?" Lea couldn't keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

Xehanort gave him a look of disapproval but didn't comment on it. "With regards to Crysa and Aya, yes. I haven't met the three lowest members yet, and Beldinas and Shini have kept their distance from me. If my information about Shini is accurate, then I could probably take him down by forcing him into a purely magical duel. Beldinas is the one I really can't say for sure. He is powerful enough that Master Limahl, who had admitted to me that not only was I stronger than him but that I was not done gaining in power, warned me to keep away from him at all costs. Until I know otherwise, I will consider him a dangerous threat."

Xehanort stood up from the table and moved over to the fireplace again. He tossed the mushrooms and diced celery into the stew and gave it all a good stir.

"You said this has something to do with your keyblade?" Lea asked after a moment.

Xehanort added another small log to the fire and nodded. "It does."

"Why? What's so important about it?"

Xehanort didn't answer right away. He straightened and stood in front of the fireplace for a few minutes, looking into the bright yellow flames. Lea opened his mouth to repeat the question, but he paused at the faraway look in Xehanort's eyes and closed his mouth.

"I bonded with No Name when I was fourteen." Xehanort finally said. "I honestly believe that Master did not know the danger I had put myself in by doing so, at least not then." He finally moved away from the fireplace and returned to his chair at the table. "Some keyblades, like yours, Sora's, or Master Riku's, are young, newly born from your heart. Others though, are old, ancient even, and are handed down from master to apprentice through the centuries. Master's Defender, which is wielded by Master Aqua, is one such keyblade. She inherited it from Master Eraqus, who inherited it from Master Limahl, who inherited it from Master Alexia, who inherited it from Master Skylar, and so on. Master's Defender is as old as the Land of Departure itself and is critical in the world's defense."

"Which is how _Master_ Aqua was able to reshape the world."

"Twice. The first was turning into Castle Oblivion, and the second was turning it back to the Land of Departure."

"So what does this have to do with No Name?"

"No Name is even older. The oldest surviving keyblade in the worlds."

"Even older than the ones at the Keyblade Graveyard?"

"Yes, that is correct. Those fallen keys were left where they fell after their wielders died during the Keyblade War. Master Luxu stayed away from the fighting and merely watched, which is how he survived to hand it down."

"So how did you end up with it?"

"It was handed down, master to apprentice as I mentioned earlier, until about a century and a half or so ago, when its last master, Master Iselotte, died suddenly. She had been a Seeker, as had her own master, who had handed it down to her. She had no apprentices when she died, and she died on the Land of Departure. The then Master of the Castle, Master Liam, knew full well just what No Name was, and he mounted it above the library fireplace, where it stayed for 103 years."

"Until you came along."

"Until I came along."

"So what all does this have to do with the Council?"

"The Council wants No Name. Why? I do not know, but the keyblade was thought lost for centuries and only resurfaced at Master Iselotte's death. I'm certain the Council knew where it was after that, but of course they couldn't reach it behind the wards, which would have stopped them if they had tried to come in with ill intent."

"Why didn't they just ask for it?"

Xehanort shrugged. "I'm going to assume that they did, and they were refused. A keyblade that is not bonded to you will never work. You won't be able to channel magic through it or use it to unlock things. That's if you can even carry it. Right after I bonded with No Name, Eraqus held it, and he said it was very heavy for him, too heavy to have been usable in battle.

"Perhaps now they believe that they can force me to do as they want. It is for that reason that no one, outside of you, knows that my Lord Ansem and I have been in contact, or that he has forgiven me. If the Council were to learn that information, they could use him as a hostage against me. It's better for them, and safer for him, to believe that I've fallen so far that I no longer care what happens to him."

Xehanort looked at Lea. "For that reason, I am also keeping it as quiet as possible that you are with me. Papa is spreading a rumor that you left on your own to search for Isa after he told you that he could not help you. Hopefully, it will be believed, and then we only have to worry about the two of us not being spotted together outside of Meadowseele. Lumaria has commanded his people to never admit that you were there, and since he phrased it as a request from me, I don't think we'll have to worry about that."

Xehanort stood up from the table and went back to the fireplace. He gave the stew a stir, tasted it, and then swung the hook out completely away from the fire. "The stew is done."

 **OOOOOO**

The two of them ate in silence, with only the crackling of the slowly dying fire and the clinking of spoons against the stoneware bowls as accompaniment for their thoughts. Lea kept his eyes on his food, thinking about everything that Xehanort had told him, while Xehanort kept looking off into space, a faraway look in his eyes.

The stew was good, and Lea ate two bowls of it, and drank the water that Xehanort summoned for him. It was all they had to drink, but Lea wasn't about to complain. They washed up in silence, and it was then that Xehanort said they should try to sleep, to set their internal clocks to the world's time.

"We're going to be here for several days." he said as the lamps dimmed down to almost nothing. "I have a great deal to teach you as quickly as possible before we leave here."

"You mean, we aren't going to search for Isa?" Lea asked as he sat up on the bed he had marked as his and stared at Xehanort.

Xehanort pulled his boots off and put them down by the chest at the foot of his own bed. "Of course we are, but not right _now_. You know next to nothing, and you will only be a burden that I have to protect if we run into trouble out there. I at least want you to be able to consistently block and evade and maybe cast healing magic before we leave."

"But Isa could be anywhere! What's the stop them from dragging him off to some place that we'll never find him?"

Xehanort laid back with his head on his pillow with his arms under his head and closed his eyes. "I can track him, because of the X that Xemnas carved into his face years ago."

"The Mark of the Recusant." Lea whispered as he felt his heart chill. "Why didn't I ever think of that?"

"Ah, you know of it."

"Sora told us about it after..." Lea squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head. "Why did you do that to him?"

"You know the reasons why, Lea."

"Yeah, but I don't understand them. Why would you ever want to start another Keyblade War? What purpose would that serve?"

He heard Xehanort sit up, and he turned back to face him and opened his eyes.

"You want to know why?" Xehanort asked. "Fine then, I will tell you. I had always been curious about the Keyblade War, and so little is known about it. We knew how it had gotten started, and we know that the Council of the Keys formed shortly after it was over, but that is all. How the shattered worlds survived, how the Darkness was pushed back, how the Light continued, all of that was unknown to us. I wanted to know. How could a world, how could humans survive after an entire planet was shattered into countless pieces? I wanted to know, but when I was young, I knew there was no way to know without finding some old, forgotten records written by the survivors. The chances of that were practically zero, so the only way to learn would be to watch it myself in some way.

"But how could I do that? The war had happened thousands of years ago, long enough for the stories of it to pass into legend, then myth, and then be forgotten entirely. Very few people know the war ever happened outside of the keyblade wielders."

Lea cross his arms over his chest and glared. "So you decided to find out first hand."

"No, I didn't. I was just a teenaged boy then, Lea. I was simply curious, but nothing more. Even after I left home and developed dark leanings, I was careful. I didn't want to fall. I didn't want to be corrupted. Master warned me to be careful and said he couldn't bear it if anything happened to me."

"And look what happened anyway."

Now it was Xehanort's turn to glare, and Lea found himself locked into staring at Xehanort's eyes, unable to look away. The room suddenly seemed much hotter, and sweat broke out onto his forehead before Xehanort turned away. The temperature seemed to take a sudden plunge, and Lea shivered as cold air brushed against the sweat on his face.

"I held on for quite a while." Xehanort said in a voice that was just above a whisper. He kept his gaze on the door across from the beds. "I did not want to disappoint or upset Master Limahl, so I was careful. Yes, I had dark leanings, which Eraqus disapproved of, but I was not the complete monster that I would one day become. It wasn't until Master died that I fell, and even that was a slow process. It still took a number of years after that for what was left of me to be completely consumed. When you are that corrupted, Lea, you no longer care who may be hurt by your words and actions. It is only your wishes and desires that are important."

Xehanort abruptly stood up and made for the door as the lamps went out completely, plunging the room into almost complete darkness. "Go to sleep. I will return later."

And then he was gone, out the door, which banged shut loud enough to make Lea jump. He stared at the door for a long moment, and then he curled up in the middle of the bed, staring at the door.

 **OOOOOO**

Lea didn't sleep at first.

It was difficult to with the feel of Darkness flickering over his skin, even with the wards. He couldn't see or hear anything, but he could sense it, and he sat huddled on the bed, hugging his knees and watching out the window. He didn't know what Xehanort was doing, and he realized quickly that he probably didn't want to know.

There was nothing to see out any of the windows. Full night had descended before they'd eaten, and the forest surrounded the clearing was draped in total shadow. If the world had a moon, it was not out, so he had only the faint glow of the other worlds to see by. Was Xehanort even going to come back? He had said he was but...

Did Lea want him to?

Lea shuddered and hugged his knees tighter as Darkness flared up for a brief moment, which made his skin crawl. The man was clearly pissed about something, likely Lea's own comments, and Lea wasn't looking forward to him coming back after that. So he sat up in bed, watched the door, and waited with a racing heart and bated breath, intending to wait as long as necessary.

He yawned, blinked, and rubbed at his eyes. He'd had a physically demanding day, and he was still aching from it. Nature's call forced him to get up and go outside in search of a place to relieve himself, and the cold air seemed to slap him awake briefly. He stood in the yard and looked off in the direction that he could sense the Darkness, but there was still nothing that he could see.

Once back inside the relative warmth of the cabin, he felt the effects of the cold air wearing off, and he stretched out on his bed, arms behind his head, and stared up at the ceiling. His day finally overcame his nerves then, and he was asleep within a few seconds.

 **OOOOOO**

A voice touched his ears, followed by several mumbles words. Lea shifted as they dragged him from the depths of sleep, and he huddled down further into the blankets, and... wait, blankets?

He cracked his eyes open and raised his head. He was covered by two heavy wool blankets, and he stared at them for a moment before more mumbling made him turn his head and look to his right.

Xehanort was in the other bed, still, his eyes closed, and his body relaxed.

"M'sorry," he mumbled, "Don't hate me."

Lea blinked at him. What was he...?

"Didn't mean for it to happen."

Was this some stunt to try and gain sympathy points?

"Please..."

Lea turned over onto his left side, facing the fireplace. "Cut it out, Xeh-xeh. It won't work."

"It's not my fault. I didn't do it."

"Oh for the love of-!" Lea growled as he got up, stuffed his feet into his boots (He hadn't taken them off, had he?) He threw the door open and went outside to relieve himself. When he came back in a minute later, Xehanort was quiet, and Lea kept one eye on him as he got back into bed. Xehanort didn't move or make another sound, and Lea went back to sleep without any interruptions.


	4. Games Without Frontiers

**A/N: Sorry for the wait, but I just stopped writing for a while. I didn't really want to post this now, since I was writing four chapters ahead, and I wanted to keep that gap, but I figured that ya'll had waited long enough. So here's Chapter 4, and hopefully I'll be able to get Chapter 8 done soon.**

 **4.  
** **Games Without Frontiers**

 _Dear Isa,_

 _I'm not even sure where to start here._

 _Yesterday was... Yesterday was just weird. There's just no other word for it. First Xehanort drags me out here to this desolate place, (After he scared the shit out of me when I inadvertently insulted his old master – I never want him to look at me that way ever again. I thought for damned sure he was going to kill me with a look.) and it's in total ruin. Except for the little cabin we're staying in, I couldn't see any intact buildings as we flew in._

 _Did I mention that it's also infested with Heartless?_

 _The damned things are everywhere. I couldn't see them through the trees, but I sure as hell could sense them. The only things stopping them from getting us is a set of wards around the cabin that Master Limahl put up years ago. Why he did that is something that Norty hasn't bothered to explain, and that's if he even knows._

 _He certainly seems to know a lot of other things though. I learned more about the Council of the Keys in a few minutes than I had learned in a couple of years from Yen Sid and the others. I wonder why no one really bothered to explain any of this to me. Of course, Xehanort could be lying about it all too, and I would have no way of knowing. Part of me would like to ask Mickey or Yen Sid if it's all true, but then they would want to know where I heard all of this, and that would be an awkward conversation._

 _So yeah, right after we got here, Xehanort hauled me outside and proceeded to swing his keyblade at me a lot. I had to either block the swings or try and evade them, but good gods, that man moves fast. I didn't know it was possible for someone to move like that. He makes Larxene look like she'd been wading through waist deep mud with the way he moves. He never actually hit me with his keyblade though. He always stopped the swing just a hair away from me._

 _And he can cook too! Hey, don't look at me like that. You know I've always appreciated a good meal, and he served up some real nice rabbit stew. He said he'll teach me to cook as well, since I might need that skill one day. Anyway, while it was cooking, he explained what he knew about the Council and how they were after his keyblade, No Name. For what, he didn't know, but he also said the Council wants to get their hands on the Land of Departure for some reason._

 _The weird part comes in when I realized I was actually interested in what he had to say. If Xemnas had been half as good at storytelling, we might have all paid attention at meetings. I swear that he talked sometimes just to hear the sound of his own voice and dragged the rest of us along for it. Maybe I ought to ask Norty about it._

 _Eh, maybe not. I asked him a lot of questions last night, and he answered most easily, but there were a couple though... I asked him about Ventus, and the damned lights in the room got dim for a moment. It was the creepiest damned thing ever. I never saw Xemnas do anything like that, so I hadn't been expecting it at all. And then later, when I snarked off to him, it was... He glared at me, and I couldn't look away! It was like something had a hold of my head and wouldn't let me turn it. And then I suddenly felt like I was standing out in the middle of the desert at high noon instead of a little cabin on a world in the middle of fall, and then he just said he'd be back, and then he went out the door._

 _I didn't see him come back. I thought for damned sure he was going to put the hurt on me for pissing him off, so I tried to stay awake for when he came back, but I ended up falling asleep anyway. I woke up later though, because he was back, lying in his own bed, and mumbling things. I told him to knock it off, because c'mon, what a better way to try and sucker someone into trusting you than playing the sympathy card, but he didn't answer me. I went outside (and it was cold out there!) to take a leak, and when I came back, he was quiet._

 _He was already up when I finally woke up in the late morning. He's making breakfast now, and he looks like hell. Makes me wonder just how late he was out last night. He hasn't said a word to me, not even when I retrieved this book from my pack to write you a letter. I'm almost afraid to find out what he's got planned for me today._

 _Time to pay the piper, as it were, I guess._

 _Later,  
_ _Lea_

Lea closed the book and glanced up at Xehanort, who was sitting down in front of the fireplace, minding a skillet with sizzling eggs and slices of ham. Nearby, the pot that last night's stew had been cooked in was sitting on a bed of coals, with its lid on, and more coals piled on top. The smell of baking biscuits was filling the cabin, along with the bacon and ham.

Xehanort was staring with a vacant expression into the fire, and his face was pale, with dark bags under his eyes. If it had been anyone else, Lea would have been concerned, and he would have been asking what was wrong. But this was Xehanort, and Lea shoved down any hint of worry as he put the book back into his pack. He put his boots and coat on and went outside to take care of things. When he came back in a few minutes later, the eggs and ham had been plated up and were on the table, while Xehanort was using a long metal rod with a hook at the end to lift the coal covered lid off the pot to check on the biscuits. He then set the lid aside and used the hook to snag the pot by one of its handles and drag it off of the coals, before he used a knife to dig out the biscuits.

Breakfast was eaten in silence. Xehanort had nothing to say, and Lea wasn't too keen on trying to start a conversation. The washing up that followed was equally quiet, and once everything had been put away, Xehanort finally spoke.

"Come outside." He then went out the door himself. Lea took a look at the frost coating the windows, shivered, and made sure to zip his coat up all the way before he stepped out.

Outside, his breath puffed out in front of him as a weak sun shone down on the clearing. The frosted grass crunched under his boots as he walked out to meet Xehanort, who was standing halfway between the cabin and the wards.

"We're going to work on magic to start with."

Lea gave him a strange look. "I already know magic."

"No, you know how to use the fire that you gained after breaking the laws of the universe. There is so much more to it than that, and you need to know how to at least heal yourself before we leave."

"Fire's good."

"It's also dangerous when battling indoors, unless you want to set the structure around you on fire, with you in it?"

Lea thought about that for a second. "No, I guess that would be bad."

"It would indeed. Lucky for you, since you already know how to call up fire, then you know the basics of how to call up the other elements as well. The biggest difficulty you will face is breaking yourself of the habit of using fire exclusively."

Xehanort held out his hand, palm up, and a small flame appeared, hovering just above the surface of his glove. He then squeezed his hand into a fist and then reopened it. The flame was gone, and in its place as an ice crystal, in the shape of the flame that had been there previously. The crystal hovered there for a moment, and then it cracked and started to break up. The ice crumbled away, and Lea felt his jaw drop when the flame from before seemed to almost be encased within the crumbling ice.

"How did you do that?" he asked in a hushed voice once the ice was gone, leaving the small flame in its place.

"Every magic user, no matter how they acquired the magic to begin with, has a natural affinity to at least one element. You are fire. Even, even before he became Vexen, had a talent for ice. Becoming a Nobody simply boosted his power significantly. I have a dual affinity for water and fire. Ice falls under that as well, since ice is merely frozen water. Master Eraqus was -" Xehanort's voice trembled just the slightest bit. "a dual fire and light elemental, while Master Aqua is water. Sometimes the definition of "element" can be stretched a bit, as one would have a hard time calling the moon an element, yet Saïx was clearly influenced by it.

"Sometimes the affinity seems to be completely random. No one knows how Even came by his ice affinity, for example, but in others the reasons are clear. Before he lost his heart, the castle gardens were Lumaria's only escape and refuge, so it makes perfect sense for Marluxia to have had such an affinity."

"What about you, where did yours come from then?"

"My ancestry."

"What, do you have fire and water users in your family history?"

Xehanort flicked his eyes up at the pale sun that was shining down on them through a thin sheen of clouds. "You could say that, yes." He squeezed his hand into a fist again, and the little flame vanished.

Lea realized something then. "Wait. Your affinity, that's how you snuffed out my fire on Meadowseele."

Xehanort smirked. "Indeed it was. My fire affinity is stronger than yours, and my magic levels are even higher still. In a battle of magic against magic, yours lost to mine and was snuffed."

"Ugh, damn it, that sucks!"

Xehanort's smirked widened for a moment, before it relaxed into a more serious expression. "Be at ease about it, Lea. I only did that then to get you to listen and to prevent you from starting a forest fire. I won't be in the habit of suppressing your magic unless it's critically important.

"Anyway, the difficulty lies in learning to summon and control elements that you do not have an affinity for." Xehanort abruptly spun around and pointed at a tree on the other side of the ward line. Lightning arched from his fingers, streamed across the wide gap, and impacted the tree trunk with a loud, sharp _boom!_ that echoed off of the other trees and rattled the windows of the cabin. There was a brief pause, and then the tree swayed, tilted, and fell over, its trunk broken clean in two.

Lea simply stared, and Xehanort dropped his hand and turned to face him. "Using a keyblade to channel magic can make things easier, but it's always good to learn to channel without it. For the more magically inclined, like myself, Master Yen Sid, and Master Aqua, it is easy. For those less so, like Terra, casting without a keyblade is extremely difficult, or may even be impossible. All keyblade wielders can use magic, but not all of us are good at it." He gave Lea a sardonic smile. "Now, let's find out where you are in that spectrum."

Lea felt his heart sink. "I don't think I'm going to enjoy this."

"Probably not. Learning magic is always difficult. It took me months to get so much as a spark, and Eraqus had similar problems. Unlearning old habits is even more difficult, all the more reason to get started."

"So where do I start?" Lea asked with a glum expression.

"Not the way you learned of your fire affinity, that is for certain."

Lea glared at Xehanort. "I only did that once!"

"And you completely gutted the interior of the room that you and Saïx were sleeping in."

"I never heard the end of it from Xigbar either."

"He thought it was hilarious actually. His exact words were 'We have a firebrand on our hands!'" Xehanort sighed. "It took him weeks to shut up about it." He shook his head. "But the best way to go about this is to think of how it feels when you call your fire. Close your eyes."

Lea merely looked at him, and Xehanort arched an eyebrow. "What? Do I have something on my face? Close your eyes, Lea."

"You're acting almost... normal again. It's weird."

"Yes, I do that a lot nowadays, or so I've been told. Now, for the last time, close your eyes."

Lea huffed. "Fine." He closed his eyes and shivered at the feel of the Heartless watching.

Xehanort somehow knew the reasons for the shiver. "They cannot cross the ward line, Lea. We are safe here."

"So you say."

"Yes, because Master Limahl knew what he was doing. Since your intention was not to insult him, I will refrain from slapping the back of your head for it – _this_ time."

"Gee, how generous of you."

"Focus, Lea. The more you delay, the longer it will take us to actually start tracking Isa down."

"Okay, I get it. What do I do now?"

"Prepare to cast your fire, but do not actually do so. Just pull it up, and have it at the ready."

"Alright, alright."

He felt the magic coursing through him as he called to it, racing like liquid fire through his body, waiting to be released to burn everything in sight. He halted it before it could go, held it back, and waited. Strangely enough, the magic almost seemed to be... annoyed with him at being held back, but Xehanort interrupted him before he could think on it.

"You command the magic, not the other way around. Order it to do as you wish, bend it to your will, while thinking strongly of what you want it to do. When you're ready, I want you to cast lightning at the treeline."

"But, I can't use -"  
"You can, and you will. This is your magic, and it has to obey you. Now cast."

"But I don't know how!"

"I just told you how, Lea. Now cast!"

Lea screwed up his face, pictured lightning like Xehanort's flying from his hands, and let the magic loose. The magic rushed through him, and he felt a tingling through his fingers, followed by a crackling sound. His eyes flew open in excitement – had he done it? - but the magic fizzled out of existence with his concentration broken.

"Try again, Lea." Xehanort said in a calm voice. "Try not to look like someone just kicked you in the crotch this time."

Lea glared at him, to which Xehanort only looked back at him with a serene expression.

"Try again. You were very close."

Lea looked away and closed his eyes again. He called the magic, it surged through him, he heard the crackle of electricity, but there was no boom, like he had heard when Xehanort had cast. He opened his eyes to see the trees across the way not even smoking.

"Don't look so disappointed." Xehanort said with a small smile. "You successfully cast Thunder."

"But it didn't hit anything."

"Of course it didn't. It's only the tier one spell, and it's an element that you're unfamiliar with. Give it time and practice, and you'll get better at it."

"But we don't have time. _Isa_ doesn't have time."

"We are not rushing into this, Lea. I need you to at least have some idea of what you're doing before we leave this world." Xehanort took a step back. "Now, cast it again."

 **OOOOOO**

Hours later, Lea dropped bonelessly into a chair. He kicked his boots off and rubbed at his aching feet before the cold air of the room made him put them back on. His hands shook as he did so, and his shirt stuck to his back with sweat. Once his boots were back on, he crossed his arms on the table and laid his head down on them. Who knew magic could be so hard? His head ached as he closed his eyes. He would just sit here for a moment, and then he'd relight the fireplace like Xehanort had told him to. Just a moment...

"Lea,"

A hand came down on his shoulder, and he bolted upright as his eyes flew open. He looked up to see Xehanort looking down at him, but the amusement he expected to see was not there.

"Are you all right?" Xehanort asked, and the urgent tone in his voice made him seem... concerned? Was Xehanort actually capable of that?

"Lea, are you all right?" Xehanort asked again, and Lea blinked and shook his head to clear the cobwebs.

"I'm fine." he said as he shrugged Xehanort's hand off. "Just tired." Xehanort's hand reached down and pushed his head up and back to look him in the eye. "Hey!"

"You're more than just tired. You're magically exhausted." Xehanort reached into a pocket and fished out a small glass vial. "Drink this; it will help."

Lea reached up with a shaking hand and tried to grab the vial, but his fingers didn't feel like cooperating, and he dropped it. The sound of the glass shattering on the floor sounded explosively loud to him, and he winced.

"Here," Xehanort fished out another vial. He didn't hand this one off, instead he popped the cork off, and then tilted Lea's head back again and held it to his mouth. "Open up."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, unless you would _like_ to lie in bed the rest of the day, feeling sicker than a dog?"

"Fine," Lea opened his mouth, and Xehanort tipped the contents of the vial in. Whatever it was, it had no real taste, but it tingled all the way down into his stomach.

"Now go lie down." Xehanort told him. "Have a nap while I make lunch."

"Okay," Lea stood up from the table, but the room spun, and his legs wobbled under him. Xehanort caught him by the arm and half carried him over to the bed. Lea found his eyes closing before he even made it the short distance to the bed, and he was dead to the world by the time his head made contact with the pillow.

 **OOOOOO**

It was Xehanort's voice, calling for him to wake up, that roused him later.

"I'm still tired." Lea grumbled as he blinked his eyes open. The scent of something delicious touched his nose then, and his stomach growled in response.

"You'll feel much better after you've eaten. Now, get up."

Lea shifted under the blanket – wait, blanket? He raised his head and blinked down at the blanket that was covering him. He hadn't covered up...

"Did you cover me up?" he asked.

"I did." Xehanort replied from the direction of the table. "Now get up. You have to eat to finish recharging."

He sat up and scratched at his head. "I've never had that happen before."

"That was my fault: I pushed you too hard. I assure you that it won't happen again. Now get up. We have more work to do later."

Lea sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Do I have to?"

"The longer you procrastinate, the longer it will take us to find Isa."

"Damn it, fine." Lea stood up and made his way on legs that still wobbled a little to the table, where he nearly fell into the chair.

"You'll feel better once you've got some food in you." Xehanort added, pushing a plate of steak and potatoes over to him.

Lea picked up his fork and poked at the still sizzling meat. "Are there cows here?"

"There are, feral descendants of domesticated cattle, but I had no desire to deal with the bulls and their horns while trying to bring down a cow, so we're eating deer today. I have more meat packed away for later."

Lea cut off a piece of the meat and ate it. "So when are you going to teach me how to hunt and all of that."

"Not until we're off of this world. There are too many Heartless here to risk it."

"C'mon, I know how to handle them."

"No, you don't." Xehanort looked up at him. "You have a heart, and you have a keyblade. The Heartless will never stop trying to get to you now, when before they would have been content to ignore you until you got too close or attacked first. This world is too dangerous for you until you learn how to handle yourself better."

"Didn't you say that you and Eraqus had your Mark of Mastery exam here?"

"That's _Master_ Eraqus, Lea, and yes, we did – when we were at the age of 20, and we had years of experience with keyblades and magic. Despite all of that, Master Limahl still hovered nearby during our entire exam, ready to intervene if we got in over our heads. And let's not forget, we just barely made it within the time limit that he had set."

Lea took a bite of the roasted potatoes and spent a moment trying to identify the spices, before he asked his next question.

"So what are you going to have me work on later?"

"Your keyblade." Xehanort said shortly as he focused on his own meal. "By the time we eat and wash up, you should be feeling well enough to work."

"And if I'm not?"

"Then I will send you back to bed, which will add another day until we can leave here to look for Isa." Xehanort looked at him. "And I will know if you are faking it, so don't even try."

Lea grumbled under his breath as Xehanort went back to eating, and he focused his attention on his own meal.

Once they had eaten and washed up, Lea plodded outside after Xehanort, and he shivered when the cold air outside brushed across his face.

"I swear it's colder every time I step outside." he grumbled.

"Winter is closing in." Xehanort said in response. "This world has very harsh winters and mild summers. The first snow should arrive within a week or two, and within a month of that, it will be up to your waist."

"Who would want to live here?"

"People who had no way off of the world and so had no choice but to stay. A few did escape without the aid of any Keyblade Master, though to this day, no one knows how they managed it."

"Really? Who?" They stopped several feet away from the cabin.

"One of Master Limahl's brothers, actually." Xehanort replied as he turned to face Lea and summoned his keyblade, which prompted Lea to do the same. "Master spotted him and his wife in Radiant Garden one day, living it up."

"And he didn't approach them or anything? Why not? Wasn't he happy to see him?"

Xehanort shook his head. "Master Limahl had been estranged from his parents and brothers for years, so much so that he didn't count them as family. He made note of them and made sure to avoid them from then on." He raised his keyblade. "Enough of that subject, however. You're out here to learn, not chat, so let's get started."

"What are we doing then?"

"The same as yesterday." Xehanort raised his keyblade. "Now, defend yourself."

 **OOOOOO**

Lea groaned quietly as he rolled over in bed. His overworked muscles protested the movement, and he wondered again what the hell he was doing. Traveling with Xehanort, accepting training from him, eating food that he cooked. Was he out of his mind?

"It's for Isa." he whispered in the silence of the room, which was dimly lit by the dying fire in the fireplace. "I have to find him, no matter what I have to do, even if it means eating Xehanort's cooking."

"I didn't hear you complaining about it earlier." Xehanort said from the other bed, and Lea froze at being overheard. "If I remember correctly, you had seconds, so it couldn't have been too horrible."

Lea felt like pulling the blankets over his head, but he quashed that. "You said you're going to teach me to cook, right?"

"I will, yes. Why? Worried that I'm planning to poison you?"

Lea growled quietly. "Maybe."

Xehanort made a quiet "Heh," and then he was silent for a moment. "If you feel that you can handle having yet another lesson on top of the other two, then we can start that tomorrow. Hunting and gathering, however, will still wait until we are off of this world."

"Is that all I'm going to be doing? Learning how to throw magic and swing a keyblade?"

"And cooking, since you asked."

"And cooking. But, seriously, is that all?"

"For now. Navigation by the worlds will come later, and wilderness survival and other useful skills will get added once we're away from here. Keyblade swinging, as you put it, and magic are all one needs to learn to attain mastery, but it is so much involved than it sounds. As I told you before, learning to wield a keyblade is normally done over the course of several years, but we do not have time for that now."  
"So you're fast tracking me."

"You could say that. I need you to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible, if only to stop you from being a dangerous liability later."

"Oh come on! I'm not helpless or anything!"

"Mind your tone." Xehanort hissed. "And yes, you are. You have nothing on the Council in terms of skill, and you had better believe that they know everything there is to know about you, including your skill level and magic strength. You're not fighting Heartless this time, who care only for their next heart. You are dealing with humans: powerful, intelligent humans who won't hesitate to take you down if you get in their way."

Lea huffed and flopped over onto his back. He put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling as the last light from the fire faded. "Why did they take Isa? Why him and not any of the others?"

"My personal belief is that he was the easiest to get a hold of. Isa has no free will of his own left, so he will only move if I tell him to." Lea winced, and his heart twisted, but Xehanort ignored his reaction and continued. "I can only assume in that short span of time when I was not able to tell Isa to get up and leave, they grabbed him."

"How can you talk about this like... like it's nothing?" Lea clenched his hands into fists for a moment. "You make it sound like Isa's just an... an... _object_ , a piece of furniture."

He saw Xehanort sit up out of the corner of his eye. "How else would you like me to speak of him?"

"Maybe as a person? As my best friend? As someone other than one of your damned vessels! He's not a thing! And why in the hell didn't you tell him to leave! You could have, couldn't you!"

Xehanort sighed. "No, I couldn't." he said, and Lea stilled at how quiet his voice had become. "I couldn't tell him anything. I was there in that castle that day, too, seated in the chair next to Xemnas. While the old man version of me was carrying on about returning as a complete person – which was a lie, as he had come from a time _before_ the possession of Terra had taken place – he kept me controlled and contained. I couldn't have moved if I had wanted to. Perhaps he realized that his most future self was having seconds thoughts? We share a heart, so it is a possibility, but the point is that I could do nothing. I was as firmly under his control as Isa was. It wasn't until we returned to our own points and places that I was able to have independent thoughts once more, and by then, the Council had already snatched Isa and taken him."

Lea chose to ignore that part for the moment. "This whole time travel thing is mind melting."

"It is, and I am the one living through it. I have no idea what convinced me that it was a good idea."

"I can't believe your youngest self went along with it. Really, what kind of kid agrees to help shatter someone's heart?"

"I can." Xehanort said, his voice suddenly quiet. "And he – _I_ had my reasons."

The cabin went silent then, and Lea propped himself up on his elbow to look over at Xehanort, who was lying down and staring at the ceiling. He opened his mouth to ask about that last statement, but Xehanort spoke first.

"Go back to sleep, Lea." he said, and then he turned over onto his right side so he was facing away from Lea. Lea stared at him for a moment, before he lowered himself back down, closed his eyes, and tried to sleep.

 **OOOOOO**

The next few days were more of the same: get up early, have breakfast, spend four or five hours dealing with magic, have lunch, and then spend four more hours swinging a keyblade around, followed by dinner, and then falling into bed for the night. Xehanort had him assist with cooking their meals, and Lea was surprised to learn just how many little things went into making food. His mother had made it look so easy all those years ago.

The weather continued to cool, and true to Xehanort's word, the first snow arrived five days after they had come to stay in the little cabin. Unfortunately for Lea, that was also the day that Xehanort started making him work on healing magic, something that he had never used before and knew nothing about.

"It is the same as everything else you've done so far." Xehanort explained from within the depths of his coat hood as his breath puffed out in front of him. "Call up your magic and command it to heal you."

Yeah, Lea thought, sure. It's so simple.

Except it wasn't.

No matter how much he concentrated or how much he willed it to happen, healing magic stubbornly refused to come to him. It didn't matter what he did: screwed up his face, tensed his muscles, even stamped his feet, his magic remained stuck in place within him, almost as though it was confused about what he wanted it to do.

He stood outside in the cold and snow for three hours and had nothing to show for it when Xehanort allowed him to come back inside for lunch. He slumped down at the table and massaged his aching head as Xehanort put a bowl of venison stew with hot, crusty bread on the side, down in front of him. A second later, the green magic of a healing spell washed over him, relieving the tension in his neck and shoulders and vanishing the headache.

"How much longer are we going to be here?" Lea asked as Xehanort sat down on the other side of the table with his own bread and stew.

"Until you master healing magic." Xehanort blew across a spoonful of the soup and then ate it.

Lea sat up straight and looked at him. "That might take a while."

"Consider it incentive then."

"Why in the hell didn't you have me work on that first?"

"Because if you think it's difficult now, imagine how it would be without learning to call up other magic first."

"But this is going to take forever, and I want to start looking for Isa!"

Xehanort glared at him. "Lower your voice; you do not speak to me that way."

Lea stood up, and the sound of his chair skidding back across the floor sounded too loud in the small room. "I'll speak to you however I damned well please." he snarled. "You drag me out here, and for what? We were supposed to go look for Isa, and instead I'm stuck on this little rut of a world with only you for company!"

"Lea..." Xehanort's voice was low.

Lea put his hands on the table and leaned down over it, and he felt a spike of annoyance when Xehanort merely looked up at him with a bored expression.

"Why in the hell did you drag me out here anyway! Was it to just waste my time, prevent me from finding your vessel?"

"Lea..."

"Didn't want me to interfere with you getting that X-blade, did you? Is this just a way for you to finally do what you couldn't during the days of the Organization? Will I finally leave here with golden eyes?"

"Lea." Xehanort's voice was louder, more firm, but Lea ignored it.

"Why are you wasting my time, _Isa's_ time!"

"Enough!" Xehanort's voice boomed through the small space as he stood up from the table, moving so fast that Lea didn't see the motion. The hair on his arms stood up, and he broke out into a cold sweat as the lights in the room suddenly dimmed.

"Wasting your time, am I?" Xehanort hissed, his golden eyes glowing. "Is that what you think? Well then, let me rectify that!"

A portal opened next to Xehanort, and Lea had just enough time to realize what that meant before he was flung head first into it. He tumbled down in a tangle of limbs and coat down on a familiar floor as the portal closed behind him. He sat up as the room stopped spinning around him, and he heard Ansem say from behind:

"One week, Lea. You lasted one week."

Lea shook his head and started to get to his feet. "Well, no need to sound so disappointed."

"Of course I am. I owe Heir Xehanort munny now."

Lea spun around to stare at Radiant Garden's king, who was sitting calmly behind his desk, piles of paperwork in front of him. "You made a bet with him? About me?"

Ansem nodded. "I did. He insisted that it would take you no more than a week to push him to the limits of his patience, while I claimed that your desire to find Isa would allow you to keep your mouth in check." He frowned. "Now I've lost 200 munny because of you. It appears that you don't want to find Isa as much as you claim."

"I do want to find Isa!" Lea shouted, bristling at the accusation. "It's fucking Xehanort! I can't stand him! Him and his damned insistence on being called by his title! Why in the hell does he deserve that kind of respect? How does he get off on demanding obedience from me after all the shit he's done!" He began to pace about the room. "He destroys the worlds, unleashes the Heartless, ruins so many lives, _takes my best friend from me,_ and now he wants me to be a good little apprentice and swallow his every damned word with a smile!"

"Lea..."

"Seriously, who in the hell does he think he is!"

"Lea."

"I should march right down into town and tell everyone where he is. Yeah, I'm going to do that right now!" Lea turned towards the door and began to walk in that direction.

"Lea Rosso, you will cease this foolish notion at once!"

The command in Ansem's tone made him pause for a second, but then he continued towards the door. "Nope, not gonna happen, Lord Ansem. I want everyone to know where that fucker is so he can pay."

He heard Ansem's chair abruptly scoot back. "I am warning you, Lea. Do not go out that door!"

"I'd like to see you try and stop me." he replied as he reached out for the door handle.

"Gladly." came Xehanort's voice from directly behind him. Lea froze in place for a second, and then he turned to run as he felt Xehanort's magic settle over him like it had that night on Meadowseele. His step slowed and faltered, and he was aware of falling to the floor as Xehanort's magic put him to sleep.

 **OOOOOO**

Water was dripping somewhere nearby. The sound of the drops splashing down echoed loudly inside Lea's aching head as he started to come around. He groaned as each drop slammed into his skull like a hammer, and his stomach rolled and heaved. He managed to drag himself over onto his stomach and retched. His head only throbbed harder at the movement, and he groaned as he collapsed to the cold, hard floor beneath him.

Where was he? He opened his eyes, but he could see nothing. The scent of water touched his nose, and behind the dripping, he could just barely hear water flowing somewhere nearby. He groaned again.

The waterway. He was in the castle dungeon. Ansem had thrown him down here? Why? Oh wait. No doubt it was to protect his precious murdering bastard of a son from the painful death he so seriously deserved. Heaven forbid the people of Radiant Garden get justice on the one who betrayed them all in the worst possible way.

Lea's fingers scratched across the rough cut stones of the floor as he carefully pushed himself up into a sitting position. His head pulsed painfully in time with his heartbeat, and the muscles in his neck and shoulders throbbed along with it as he leaned against one of the stone walls that made up what undoubtedly was a cell. The stones were damp to the touch, and the cool humidity of the area brushed across his face and hands as he slumped back, hoping that holding still would ease his headache. He would rest for a bit, and then he would summon his keyblade and get the hell out of there. He then would go to anyone who would listen and trumpet that Lord Ansem was in league with Xehanort.

Lea leaned his head against the wall and waited. As the minutes ticked by, he realized that the cell wasn't in total darkness. Faint light could be seen through a small, barred window in the cell door, and it just barely allowed him to see the outline of the door, and the walls, floor, and ceiling immediately around it. The farthest corners of the cell remained in shadows, and he closed his eyes against it and sighed. It he could see light, he couldn't be too deep into the dungeon, which mean it should be easy to get out once he felt well enough to move around.

He had no idea how long it took for the worst of the throbbing to subside, but when it was down to a bearable level, he raised his hand to summon Proud Flame, so he could unlock the door and slip out.

But nothing happened.

Lea blinked and tried again. Again, Proud Flame did not appear. A third attempt got the same results.

"What the hell?" A fourth attempt also failed. He then reached down for his magic, and he found it there, but when he tried to summon it to burn out the door, it did not materialize. He tried again, focusing on the feeling of the magic surging through him like Xehanort had taught him (Ugh...) but it seemed to slam into some kind of barrier before it could appear.

Lea frowned in confusion as a third attempt resulted in the same feeling of his magic running into an impenetrable wall. He held his hands up in front of his face, and the dim light just barely allowed him to see something on his wrists.

He dragged himself to his feet, wincing as the throbbing of his head and neck returned full force, and he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes for a few minutes to wait for it to settle. He then stepped carefully towards the door and held his hands and wrists up to the window.

Wide cuffs encircled his wrists, looking very much like the ones he'd seen on Xehanort's wrists days ago. He squinted and titled his head to the side (Which hurt, a lot.) and he was just barely able to see some kind of etching. A quick check confirmed that the cuffs were leather and had no buckle or any other way to take them off.

"They are magic blocking cuffs." Xehanort's voice spoke softly from one of the darkened, back corners of the cell, and Lea spun around to face him. The sudden motion made his head screech in protest, and his stomach heaved again. There was nothing more for him to vomit up, and he dry heaved for a minute or two before he could straighten back out. His head was throbbing as badly as he had when he'd woken up, and he groaned a third time as he slumped down to the floor and clutched his head in his hands. It felt like it wanted to explode at any second.

Xehanort said nothing more as Lea waited for the throbbing to ease again, which seemed to take forever. Time was measured in heartbeats at the migraine clawed at his head and neck, until it finally began to settle down and subside as he held still.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he rasped as he continued to clutch his head in his hands.

"Making sure that you're not dead, for one." Xehanort replied, still speaking very softly. If the area hadn't been nearly silent, Lea knew he wouldn't have been able to hear him well enough to understand him.

"What, not man enough to finish me off?"

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Can't have me tell everyone that you're here, after all."

"No, and that is precisely why you are down here. If word were to get out about Lord Ansem being in contact with me, it would result in him being slaughtered by a lynch mob. I will not allow anything more to happen to him because of me, Lea, and if that means keeping you down here until everything is settled, then so be it."

"So do you intend to just sit there and babysit me for the rest of our lives."

"I have no need to do that. This part of the dungeon is inaccessible to all by myself and Lord Ansem. No one will find you here, and those cuffs you bear around your wrists will prevent you from escaping."

"So you're just going to leave me here? In the fucking dark?"

Xehanort sighed, and lights on the cell walls suddenly came to life, flaring brightly before settling down to a much dimmer level. Lea flinched back from the sudden brightness and blinked away the spots in his eyes before he took a look around.

Perhaps "cell" wasn't the right word. Except for the barred door and lack of windows, the room looked like any other comfortable furnished room that one might find at a respectable inn. A inviting looking bed, covered in quilts and fluffy pillows, took up one corner of the room. A small table and chair sat next to it. Up by the door was a sink and a toilet, with a large, well stocked bookcase situated opposite to the right of the door. A light dotted each wall roughly in the center, and a lamp was sitting on the table.

Xehanort was seated in the remaining corner, the one furthest from the door, and the lights nearest to him were off, shrouding him in shadow. His black coat seemed to only absorb what little light came his way.

"Still hiding in the darkness, I see." Lea couldn't help but snark as he dragged himself to his feet and made his way to the chair at the table. The glow from the table lamp allowed him to see where he'd vomited on the floor, right next to the rug aside the bed. Why had he been lying on the floor anyway?

"The Darkness has always welcomed me, Lea." Xehanort said with a dry smile. "Centuries ago, my ancestor was cursed to forever wander in darkness, bereft of the light and warmth of the sun. Since then, his descendants have always found comfort and safety in the shadows where Lord Asoth's light cannot reach."

Lea blinked as he slumped down into a chair. He vaguely remembered Sora and Riku saying something about an Asoth, the Destiny Islands' sun god, months ago, but he pushed those thoughts aside.

"So you've seen that I'm not dead," he asked, "so now what are you going to do?"

"Offer you a choice."

Lea rubbed his temples and closed his eyes against the light. As dim as it was, it still seemed too bright to him.

"And what makes you think I give a damn about any choice you might offer?"

"Give me credit, Lea. I am not the fool that you take me for. I am only down here because Lord Ansem wasn't happy about one of your choices and begged me to talk to you about it."

"Say what you came to say then and get the hell out, so I can try and sleep off this headache." He raised his throbbing head and looked at him. "Why in the hell do I have this damned thing anyway?"

"A combination of a deep sleep and you slamming your head against the floor when you fell."

"Why the fuck didn't you heal me then, or do you always leave your apprentices with concussions?"

Xehanort raised an eyebrow. "Quit being so dramatic. You don't have a concussion, and you are no longer my apprentice, if you remember. I threw you out due to your gross disrespect of myself."

"And I suppose you were never disrespectful to your master? Did he chuck you out too?" Lea met Xehanort's gaze, and he was pleased to see something flicker in the man's golden eyes. Score one point for him...

"I was a child, not a grown man, and I never dared speak to him the way you shouted at me." Xehanort stood up and approached him, and Lea nearly flinched back before he caught himself. He schooled his expression into one of boredom and looked up at Xehanort as he came to stand in front of him.

"Here are you choices, Lea. You can stay here in this dungeon, until I have taken care of everything that needs to be dealt with. You will then be released to live out the rest of your life. You will be well fed and cared for while down here, but you will not be able to leave. Your magic and keyblade will remain blocked, and only Lord Ansem and myself can remove the cuffs that are keeping your powers contained."

"And my other option?" Lea said, acting for all the world like none of it mattered to him, even as his heart accelerated at being stuck down there for who knew how long.

"You apologize to me, and I mean that you must truly apologize and mean it. I will then reinstate you as my apprentice, and we will go back to what we had been doing before you mouthed off. This, however, will be your final chance. One more incidence of disrespect from you will result in you living down here, whether you like it or not."

"No third option?"

"No." Xehanort said in clipped tones.

"How long do I have to decide?"

"Until tomorrow morning." Xehanort pulled back the sleeve of his coat to look at his watch. "You have eleven hours. Use them wisely."

Xehanort turned on his heel and walked out of the cell. Lea thought for a brief moment of trying to follow him, but he discarded it quickly. Xehanort would simply catch him and throw him back in. Instead he hauled himself back onto his feet as the cell door shut and moved over to the bed, whereupon he promptly collapsed down onto it and was asleep in seconds.

 **OOOOOO**

The cell door swinging open startled him awake untold hours later, and he raised his head as panicked thoughts about sleeping away all of his allotted time swirled around in his mind. His racing heart calmed though when he saw Ansem coming through the door, carrying a tray of food. The smell of it touched Lea's nose, and his stomach growled loudly. How long had it been since he'd last eaten?

Ansem didn't say a word as he set the tray on the small table and then moved to sit in the chair that Xehanort had been in earlier. He gave Lea an expecting look, and Lea gingerly stood up from the bed. He sagged and let out a sigh when his head did not protest the movement, and he had only a lingering ache as he walked to the table and sat down.

The meal that Ansem had brought him was simple: soup, small salad, a sandwich cut into quarters, and a pitcher of lemon water, and Lea wasted no time in making short work of it. Soon only crumbs and little drops of salad dressing remained on the plates. Lea just barely covered his mouth in time for the belch that came out, and he looked over his shoulder and gave Ansem a sheepish look.

"I see that Heir Xehanort hasn't had much luck in improving your table manners." Ansem said with a disapproving frown.

"Well, it's not like his opinions matter to me, so it's not important." Lea stood up from the table and stretched. "Coming to visit so I don't go stir crazy down here?"

"I came down to speak to you about the choice that he gave you."

"Why do you care?"

"I am afraid that my reasons aren't entirely selfless. Simply put, I need you to help my son to keep his head."

Lea gave Ansem a strange look. "The hell does that mean?"

"Heir Xehanort will never be free of the Darkness, Lea. After falling so far, it is a part of him and cannot be removed. I'm sure that you have noticed flickers of it whenever he is angry."

Lea suddenly thought of that night, of feeling the Darkness after Xehanort had abruptly left the cabin, and he shivered. "Yeah," he said quietly, "I've noticed."

"Help him to not fall again, Lea."

Lea whipped his head up to stare at Ansem. "How in the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"Be attentive when he teaches you. Learn from him. Be a companion. He's been dark aligned for decades, but he has told me that he did not completely fall until his Master Limahl had passed on, as he hadn't wanted to disappoint him. I need you to take Master Limahl's place as his anchor to reality, his light against the Darkness that wants to devour him. He has clawed his way out of the mire once; he won't be able to manage that a second time."

"Why should I do anything for him, after everything he's done? For that matter, why should you?"

"Because he's still my son, Lea. You look at him and see the monster that destroyed Radiant Garden. I look at him and see the lost boy that I welcomed into my home and heart years ago."

"That lost boy experimented on the people he was supposed to protect, threw you into the Realm of Darkness, and _destroyed the world_ if you remember. Why should I help him?"

Ansem looked at him for a moment. "Please, Lea," he finally said, and Lea was startled to hear the Lord of Radiant Garden begging. "Please. He is my son still, despite everything, and you're his best chance for coming through this with his sanity intact. He won't stay here and let me help him for fear of endangering me. You're my only hope for not losing him to the Darkness again."

"Again, why should I care?"

Ansem closed his eyes, bowed his head, and sighed. He then looked up at Lea with a serious expression.

"Because everything that he's told you: about the Council of the Keys, about Isa, and about what they will do when they no longer have any use for him, is the complete truth. He is Isa's only hope, so if you want Isa back alive, with his heart intact, then you need Xehanort."

"Are you blackmailing me or something?" Lea asked as he gave Ansem a dirty look.

"Just stating the truth as it stands, Lea. No more and no less. You need Heir Xehanort to have any chance of bringing Isa home, and Xehanort, whether he admits it or not, needs you to hold his Darkness back long enough to do so."

Lea growled and raked his hand back through his hair as he realized the truth of Ansem's statement. "This is so damned unfair."

Ansem nodded. "It is. I am not unaware of the atrocities my son has committed, Lea, and I am not ignoring his crimes. By the laws I swore to uphold after my father passed, I should have him hung, but I am a parent, and no true parent wants to execute their own child. But..." Ansem trailed off, and his eyes took on a faraway look for a moment. "Xehanort is the only one who can right his wrongs. No one else has the power or the knowledge."

"And once he has done all of that, then what? What will you do then?"

Ansem took a shuddering breath. "I try not to think that far ahead. My father and grandmother would be horrified to learn about what I allowed to happen to this world, but I like to think that they would understand the difficulties that I am facing with my son." He stood up from the chair and stepped over to the table. Lea looked up at him as he collected the dishes, leaving the water pitcher and glass behind. "Xehanort will return within the hour, to hear your decision, Lea. I suggest that you think hard about what you want to have happen until then."

Lea said nothing as Ansem walked out of the cell, and once the door shut behind him, he shivered and folded his arms on the table before lying his head down on then. As much as he hated to admit it, he did need Xehanort's help to bring Isa home. Masters Mickey, Yen Sid, Aqua, and Riku had talked about how unfair it was that the Council had taken Isa, but none of them had actually tried to _do_ anything about it. Sure they had other things to worry about, but that was no reason to just let Isa suffer all alone somewhere! Lea slammed his fist down on the surface of the table. It wasn't fair! They were supposed to have gotten their hearts back after the Organization's destruction and go back to living the lives that Xehanort had stolen from them! Instead he was stuck facing an impossible choice: doing nothing and being just as useless as everyone else when it came to finding Isa, or swallowing his pride and begging Xehanort's forgiveness. He could just let Xehanort handle it himself, but after what Ansem had said, it didn't seem as though Xehanort was capable of lasting that long. Despite everything that had happened, Lord Ansem had never lied to his people, and Lea had no reason to believe he would start now.

Ugh...

An hour later, the cell door opened, and Xehanort swept into the room, with only the rustle of fabric to announce his arrival.

"Choose, Lea." he said.

Well, there was really only once choice to make, was there?

Lea sighed, stood up from the chair, and looked Xehanort in the eye.

"Master Xehanort," he said formally, "I offer you my unreserved apology for my blatant disrespect of you earlier. It was rude and completely uncalled for, and I completely ignored the help you were trying to give me." His skin crawled, and the words felt dirty on his tongue, but he forced himself to keep talking. He had to do this, for Isa. "I ask for your forgiveness and assure you it will not happen again."

Xehanort looked at him for a long moment, without saying anything, and Lea felt sweat pop out on his forehead as he waited. Had he bought it? Or was he simply going to walk away and leave Lea behind?

The silence stretched out between them, and then Lea felt his body sag with relief when Xehanort smiled at him. It was a genuine, warm smile, and it was reflected in his golden eyes. Lea found himself thinking of the days before Radiant Garden's fall, of how Xehanort's smiles had made people melt. His horrific injuries upon his rescue had caused many to speculate that he'd been trying to escape an abusive home, and everyone had come to care about him as a result. Offers to take him in had flooded in from everywhere, and his adoption by Ansem had resulted in a world wide party that had lasted for three days.

"Well done, Lea." Xehanort said, startling Lea out of his memories. "You have just shown me that you are serious about seeing Isa safely home. Still, this is your final warning. I expect obedience from here on out. If you push me to the point I throw you back here again, I will not accept you back a second time. Am I understood?"

Just saying the words made Lea feel like he needed a shower, but he did so anyway. "Yes, Master Xehanort, I understand."

Xehanort nodded sharply. "Good." A healing spell washed over Lea then, relieving the remains of the migraine, and a portal opened up next to him. "Let's go."

Lea hesitated only for a second before he walked through.


	5. Calypso

**A/N: So I just finished Kingdom Hearts III, and... I have no words. Annoying and sometimes frustrating gameplay that culminated in an amazing ending that had me in tears for a sizable chunk of it. I say it was well worth the 13 year wait. A massive thanks to everyone at Square-Enix and Disney for brining us such a perfect closure to the Xehanort arc.**

 **A/N: And speaking of that. Bear in mind that the first eight chapters of this fic were written BEFORE KHIII was released. I did borrow from what little we knew from the trailers here and there, as you'll see in this chapter. The fic's eventual ending was also planned out before the game was released. Anyway, now that I've said that, on with the fic.**

 **5.  
Calypso  
**

 _Dear Isa,_

 _I'm ready to scream in frustration over here._

 _I had to apologize to Xehanort again. I HATE doing that!_

 _Yeah, I shouted at him, and I can't help but wonder if he really is planning to try and possess me like he did you. It would be easy for him; we're all alone out here, and I know damned well I'd stand no chance against him in a fight, especially a magic based one._

 _I accused him of planning to do just that, and he threw me through a portal back into Radiant Garden. Oh, and that's when I found out he and Ansem had made a bet over how long it would be until I pissed him off long enough to do that! Seriously! They made a bet on me! I can't believe that!_

 _Ansem lost, by the way, and now he owes Xehanort 200 munny because of it. I'm sure it's just pocket change to him, but come on! It's the principle of the thing!_

 _Well anyway, I tried to leave and tell everyone that Ansem and Xehanort are in contact with each other, but Xehanort came right up behind me and dropped me with a sleep spell. I woke up later in the castle dungeons, with a bitch of a headache and a nasty bruise on my head to show for it. I threw up when I tried to move around, and I found out that Xehanort had been watching me the entire time I was out. He says it was just to make sure that I didn't die or anything, but I'm still creeped out about it._

 _So, I was wearing this set of leather cuffs that had all of these weird etches on them – runes, Xehanort explained later – and they prevented me from using any magic or summoning my keyblade. The thing is, Xehanort is also wearing a set. I've seen them before whenever he had his coat off, but they don't seem to be working for him, since he throws magic around like it's nothing and summons his keyblade all the damned time. I kinda want to ask him about it, but at the same time I want to talk to him as little as possible._

 _Ansem laid out the facts for me, you know. It's either help Norty or never see you again. Not the greatest choice in the worlds, but one Ansem and Nort-nort forced me into making. What else could I do? I swore I would do whatever it took to find you, and now that includes acting as Xehanort's morality chain – somehow. I'm not sure how Ansem expects this to work, but whatever._

 _So yeah, I apologized to him, and he opened a portal and brought me back to the cabin on that desolate world. He immediately started keyblade training as soon as we stepped out the other side. He had to take the cuffs off of me to do that. The instant he touched them, they expanded until they were large enough to slip over my hands. Were the damned things bound to him or something? And that makes me wonder if they one that he's wearing are bound to Ansem. Maybe they're on so Ansem can cut his magic off at any time? But how do they work? Can they be turned on and off like that?_

 _Well, I sure as hell ain't gonna ask him. He'd probably tell me it was none of my business anyway._

 _Now, I have to finish up this letter so I can start breakfast. He started up all my lessons just like nothing had happened, and that includes cooking, and he expects me to make at least one of our meals every day, with him supervising, and it's my turn to do breakfast today. At least he goes and gets the ingredients for me – he says this world is too dangerous for me to leave the warded circle around the cabin. Once we move on to another world, he says he'll teach me to hunt and forage._

 _Strangely enough, part of me is actually looking forward to it. Me, looking forward to learning things? Who knew?_

 _Anyway, that's all for now. I'll write again soon._

 _Love you (still not that way!)_

 _Lea_

 **OOOOOO**

"You're trying too hard."

Xehanort's voice jolted Lea out of his latest (failed) attempt to cast healing magic. "Huh?"

Xehanort crossed the short distance from the cabin's door to the spot in the yard where Lea was standing. "I said that you are trying too hard. You're trying to brute force the result you want instead of letting your magic flow freely." Xehanort stood behind him. "Relax. You're wound up like a watch spring."

"I can't get this shit to work!"

"I know, I know." Xehanort said quietly. "I understand how frustrating it is. It took me months to get healing magic to work, and not only was I not under the time pressures that you are, but magic comes naturally to me. You can imagine how irritated I was over the difficulties I was having, even with Master Limahl's calm assurance that such struggle was normal for new learners."

"I wonder if he struggled with it too."

"He did. He landed somewhere in between those that have magic come to them easily and those who struggle to get anywhere. His magic was powerful, but he had to work very hard for years to get to that point."

"So what do I do?"

Lea felt Xehanort's hands on his shoulders. "Relax, first of all. Stop worrying about it. Close your eyes, and take a deep breath. Don't think about Isa. Don't worry about the Council of the Keys. Just relax."

Lea did as instructed, letting his muscles relax and letting the tension melt away. He leaned backwards into Xehanort's hands as his eyes closed.

"Feel for your magic." Xehanort was nearly whispering. "Feel it flowing through you. Imagine it surging forward to do as you bid. Think about what you want it to do; you want it to get rid of the aches in your muscles from being wound up for too long. You want it to banish the headache that you have as a result. Think about that, visualize it, and then let the magic flow."

Lea took another deep breath and imagined what his body looked like on the inside. The bones, the muscles, blood, nerves, and sinew, all tied together to make him. Running through it all was an invisible current. His magic ebbed and flowed through him, even while he was asleep.

"Do you feel it?" came Xehanort's voice from behind him. "Do you see it?"

"Yes."

"You control the magic; it does not control you. It is able and willing to obey you, but you must give it the correct instructions. You must not force it, like you've been trying to do. Just ask, and it will do as you will."

Lea called on the magic, and it surged forward, rushing towards his hands like it always did. He let it go, not giving it any direction other than to come to the fore. As it had before, it seemed almost eager to answer his summons.

"Now cast."

Lea raised his hand. "Heal," he said in a quiet voice, and a moment later, he heard the soft chime of the magic materializing above him, followed by the feel of it running down over him, banishing his muscle aches and headache. He let his hand drop and sighed before he stood up and opened his eyes.

"Well done, Lea." came Xehanort's voice, and he turned to look at him.

"Why didn't you do this to begin with?" he asked.

"I was hoping that you would get it on your own." Xehanort replied as he stepped back. "The method we just tried does have its drawbacks, and you'll have to wean yourself off of it before you can cast healing magic freely, without having to think about it."

"Then why did you bother?"

"Because we're in a hurry. I want you to stay out here until lunch, trying to decrease your casting time. I want you casting as quickly as possible before we leave here, since you may end up critically injured out there and not have the time to do the visualization before you bleed to death."

"Do you want me to help make lunch?"

"No, I want you focused on this. I will take care of lunch and dinner, as well as breakfast tomorrow. Now, keep working."

Xehanort turned and walked back inside the cabin, and Lea watched him until he vanished inside, before he sighed, shook his head, and set to work.

The clearing was bathed in shadows, and the sun was sinking beneath the horizon when Xehanort called Lea inside for dinner hours later. He trudged inside and kicked his boots off just inside the door, so not to track snow and mud all over the floor. His stomach growled as he sat down at the table, and he winced as he raked his grimy hair out of his face. He hadn't had a bath or shower since they'd left Meadowseele, and all they had in the cabin were quick wipe downs with conjured water.

"I really want a hot bath." he grumbled as he tried to ignore how greasy his hair felt.

"You'll get one soon enough." Xehanort said from over by the fireplace. "I'm going to give you another day to work on healing magic, and then we'll be going to The Caribbean and then on to Olympus Coliseum."

"Why those two worlds?" Lea asked as he leaned forward onto the table.

"Because there are gods and goddesses that I can speak to."

"Gods and goddesses... Wait, you are going to walk right up to actual gods and just talk to them?"

Xehanort stood up from the fireplace and turned to look at him. "Yes, is that too difficult to understand?"

"But, they're _gods_."

"Yes, they are." Xehanort turned back around to the fireplace and pulled the beef stew off the hook, before he pulled the biscuits off the coals. "They will still speak to me if I ask."

"So you're just going to waltz up to them and say "Hey, can I have a few minutes of your time?'"

"Not in that exact wording, but yes, that is the gist of it."

Lea headdesked against the table. "You're insane."

Xehanort laughed. "More than you will ever know, Lea. Now, let's eat."

The first part of dinner passed in silence, and Lea found himself growing antsy at it, shifting in his chair, tapping the fingers of his left hand against the tabletop, and spooning up bits of his stew and letting it plop back down into the bowl. Xehanort gave him a warning look, to which Lea only grinned unrepentantly and continued.

"You, Lea Rosso, are very infuriating at times." Xehanort said in a low tone.

"Yeah, my mom told me the same thing a few times."

"You must have given your parents so many gray hairs."

"So they claimed."

"Several times."

"Yeah, yeah – Wait," Lea looked at Xehanort in confusion. "How would you know?"

"I am Radiant Garden's heir, Lea. Who do you think had to speak to your parents about all those times you and Isa tried to sneak into the castle? The guards quickly grew tired of chasing you two around, so they asked my father to intervene. My father in turn, told me to summon your parents and speak to them about it."

"Oh, right." Lea thought back, remembering the harsh lecture that he and Isa had received from both sets of parents about their sneak attempts. After that Isa had refused to try again. "That explains why they were so pissed at us about it."

"Being summoned by the prince and told to bring their children under control will cause that."

Lea gave Xehanort a hard stare. "You weren't an asshole about it, were you?"

Xehanort looked affronted at the mere thought. "Of course not!" he said vehemently. "I was very calm and polite about it. I think they were more angry about it than I was. I found the entire thing funny, to be honest." He smiled faintly.

"All those times we snuck into the castle," Lea grumbled to himself, "and all we had to do was ask for an audience."

"Or you could have just paid the munny to join one of the castle tours that took place a few times a year."

"Seriously? You did castle tours?"

"Well, _I_ didn't." Xehanort paused to take a bite of his stew. He seemed to be thinking as he chewed and swallowed. "There were members of the castle staff that acted as tour guides, leading groups of people around the castle, explaining its history and construction, changes that had been made to it over the years, the story of how the Harts came to power, all of that. Sometimes the tours came across Lord Ansem or myself as we went about our days, but it didn't happen often.

"At least one tour guide was dismissed from her job when she decided to lead the tour into the castle infirmary and tried to get them into the private room where I was recovering after Braig had found me. The doctor in charge of the infirmary, Sonora Bryer, stopped them from actually getting into my room, but not before they'd made enough of a racket to wake me up. Since I had difficulty sleeping due to the pain I was in, that was pretty serious. She dragged them out, lectured them, and had them all thrown out of the castle."

"I knew people were a bit obsessed with you at the beginning, but that's a bit much."

"Oh, I agree. You should have seen the mountain of gifts I was sent back then. I believe most of them ended up being donated to various charities; there were more than I could have possibly kept. And this was on top of everyone trying to see me, or talk to me, or get a photograph of me. I was very relieved when I was adopted, because Lord Ansem could and did go after people that harassed me."

"The parties after that were fun, at least."

Xehanort snorted. "For you, for everyone else but me, they were."

"Oh c'mon, people were celebrating that you'd been adopted. Didn't you want to join in?"

"My father and I had our own private celebrations, along with Even and the others. I was still healing from the beating that Master Aqua had given me, I tired easily as a result, and I still felt very..." Xehanort hesitated, searching for the right words. " _adrift_. I only knew my name, the people that I saw regularly: Lord Ansem, Dr. Bryer, Even, and all the others who cared for me during those days, and that I'd just been made heir to a world that had previously been facing a succession crisis. I felt much safer and more secure than I had before, but I had no idea what to expect in my future, and it had me very nervous and worried. Joining in on wild celebrations were the last thing on my mind."

Lea leaned over the table. "Okay, now I gotta ask. How many of those 'Heir Xehanort is tired and needs to go rest.' excuses were real?"

"About half of them." The corner of Xehanort's mouth twitched. "The other half were me faking it simply to get away from all of the eyes staring at me."

"Did Lord Ansem know?"

"He did. He even quietly told me at one point that I would have to get used to such appearances soon enough, as my improving health would mean I wouldn't be able to use that excuse for much longer." Xehanort leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms over his head. He then relaxed and rested one arm on the chair back. "I just didn't like being stared at. I was very happy when people got used to me being around and quit doing that." He picked up the last biscuit from the serving plate and used it to mop up the last traces of the stew from his bowl before eating it.

Lea gave him an annoyed look; he'd been intending to grab that biscuit. "Was landing yourself as Radiant Garden's heir part of your grand plan?"

"No, it wasn't. I had intended, after possessing Terra, to go off somewhere with Braig to further my schemes elsewhere, but having to seal away my heart, along with all of my memories, derailed that completely. I genuinely had no memories of my past for most of the time I lived in Radiant Garden, and even after they started to come back to me, I didn't recall everything. It wasn't until I regained my senses after the events with my oldest self in Where Nothing Gathers that everything came back."

"Didn't stop you from wrecking things, did it?" Lea stared at Xehanort, met his eyes, daring him to answer.

"No," Xehanort's voice was much quieter, "it didn't."

The cabin fell silent again as Xehanort stood up and carried his dishes away from the table to start the clean up. Lea quickly finished his own stew and did the same, kicking himself for killing the conversation.

Well, _someone_ had to ask the hard questions, he thought as they washed up and got ready for bed. It's not like Ansem was going to. Someone had to keep reminding Xehanort that he was on borrowed time. People were hunting him, after all, and it wouldn't do for him to be caught – yet. Once Isa was safe, then he would see what he could do about that.

 **OOOOOO**

The next day dragged on as Lea stood outside, working on healing magic. To his annoyance, Xehanort had called it; he struggled to cast without doing the visualization first.

"How did you figure that out anyway?" he asked as they sat down to lunch.

"Ventus had to use the same technique." Xehanort replied. "I came up with it out of the blue to help him get past the block."

Lea didn't hesitate with the next question. "What about Vanitas?"

"Vanitas never learned healing magic."

Lea looked at Xehanort, who was plating up fillets of catfish, which had been caught in a nearby river. "Never?"

"Never. I believe that he was truly not capable of it, due to what he was." Xehanort carried the fish over to the table and set Lea's plate down in front of him. He then sat down with his own plate.

"Were you as strict with Ventus and Vanitas as you were with me?"

Xehanort didn't answer for several minutes. He sat back in his chair, looking at Lea, and then his eyes took on a faraway look. Lea watched him, all the while picking off slivers of meat from his fillet and eating them.

"Before I fell," Xehanort finally said, "I was strict with Ventus, yes, but only because we were traveling the worlds and thus had no true safe place. I'd taken him in when he was very small, and there were always the risks associated with having a small child on such excursions. Several worlds, including this one at one time, have slave trades, child prostitution rings, and places where it just wasn't safe for a child to be alone without an adult. Ventus had to do what I said, when I said, if he wanted to stay safe. That there were no less than three kidnapping attempts against him only hammered that even further home to both of us. I avoided taking him to the really dangerous places when he was younger, but even safer worlds have hidden dangers.

"Once I had fallen, I was not strict, I was _abusive_. I treated a boy that I had once loved like a son as a tool to further my own ends. Once I'd ripped his heart in two, I was the same to Vanitas. Sending Ventus to the Land of Departure was the best thing I could have done for him, even if I did so with nefarious intentions in mind."

Lea thought on that for a moment. "So..." he began, "what happened to Vanitas?"

"Vanitas was freed of my influence, which allowed him to fully rejoin with Ventus."

"Vanitas was a vessel?"

Xehanort nodded and focused his attention on his fish. "The third one I freed. I would have preferred him to have been first, in all honesty, but with Ventus hidden by Master Aqua in Castle Oblivion, I had to wait. Once I'd rescued her, and she turned the castle back to its original form, then I had to wait for her to go off-world long enough for me to find Ventus and do what needed to be done."

"Wait, you freed Vanitas from within Ventus?"

"Yes, their sheared hearts tried to recombined into one when they fought and forged the imperfect X-blade, and Vanitas took the sliver of my heart with him when they did." Xehanort leaned back in his chair and looked out the window. "I got lucky there. I didn't expect Master Aqua to leave Ventus unattended once she'd turned the world back, but she was determined to save Terra somehow, which gave me the opening I needed. With the weakened wards, once she was off-world, she never knew I was there, and I was gone before Ventus came around."

Something flickered in Xehanort's eyes then, and he was quiet for a long moment. "Anyway," he finally said, breaking the silence, "once I freed Ventus, I then did the same for Terra, which was a monumental task, but soon Terra was the fourth vessel freed."

"How _did_ you free Terra?"

"The short of it is that Xemnas paid far more attention and understood much more about the Replica program than he let on. And since all the equipment is still around on Never Was, it was easy enough to go there and do what was needed."

"What about the others?" Lea asked just before he took another bite of his fish.

"My Heartless and Nobody will simply never be pulled forward to this time again and will be defeated by Sora in their own time like normal, which allowed me to reform as a complete person. The same goes for my oldest self; he will use his heart to take over this body, and his own body will be lost right after. He'll never come forward in time either. My youngest self is the same; he will never come forward in time again, and less than a month after traveling here, Master Limahl will stop at the Destiny Islands and offer to take him off of his foster parents' hands."

Lea wasn't sure he'd heard that right. "Foster parents?"

Xehanort ignored him. "I freed Rould – you knew him as Luxord – not long after freeing Terra".

Lea nearly choked on the water he was drinking. "Luxord was a vessel too? Since when?"

"Not long before Xemnas was defeated. Demyx was also added just before he was sent to the Underworld."

"Demyx too!"

"Yeah, Xemnas was growing a little desperate by then."

"Seriously!" Lea paused to eat the last bite of his fish and sat back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest, "that's your oldest self, Xemnas, your Heartless, your teenaged self, Terra, Isa, Braig, Lumaria, Ventus, Luxord, and Demyx." He quickly counted them up. "That's only eleven, who are the other two?"

"Sora was intended to be thirteen, but you foiled that plan." The corner of Xehanort's mouth twitched again.

"Yay," Lea said in a deadpan voice. "Who's the other person?"

"That person was the first one freed."

"Wait, I thought that was Lumaria?"

"He thinks he was the first, but he was actually the second. As soon as I came back to myself after clawing my way out of the Darkness, that person was there in front of me, and I took the chance that was presented."

"Yeah, but who was it?"

Xehanort stood up and carried his plate away to wash it. "No one you need to worry about, Lea. All you need to worry about are Braig and Isa. They are the only ones left."

"Why won't you tell me who it is?" Lea paused. "It's not me, is it?"

Xehanort turned and looked at him in disapproval. "No," he said firmly, "it's not you."

"Then why don't you want to tell me?"

"Because it's none of your concern. It is a private matter between myself and that person, and nothing you need to worry about." He turned back to washing his plate.

Lea stayed in his chair, gnawing on his lip, as his thoughts tumbled around inside of his head.

"It was Ansem, wasn't it?" he asked quietly as he looked up at Xehanort, who froze in place at the question. "That's why he trusts you. Because you freed him."

Xehanort didn't move for the longest time, and then his shoulders slumped as he let out a quiet sigh. "Yes," he whispered, "it was him. It was why I threw him into the Realm of Darkness instead of killing him all of those years. Not because part of me didn't want to, but because I needed him alive." Xehanort leaned heavily on the counter next to the fireplace. "Since coming back together as a whole person, I'd been having little moments of clarity, times where my real personality from before my fall seemed to be trying to reassert itself. By the time we all met in Where Nothing Gathers, I was having serious doubts whenever my mind was clear. It was in one of those clear moments that I tracked Lord Ansem down in the Realm of Darkness and got him out. I removed the fragment of my heart from his, and..." Xehanort trailed off and didn't say any more. He grabbed his coat, gloves, and boots, put them back on, and vanished out the door.

Lea sat in the empty silence of the cabin for a few minutes, before he got up, washed his plate, and then went back outside to work on his casting.

Xehanort reappeared just before dinner time.

Lea paused in his spellcasting and watched him walk across the yard to the cabin. He was carrying another rabbit in his hand, and he waved Lea away when he took a step towards the cabin door. Lea shrugged and turned back to his magic practice until Xehanort called him in for dinner later.

The meal was eaten in total silence, and several times Lea opened his mouth to try and start a conversation, only to close it with no words spoken. What was he going to say anyway? Instead he ate quickly, helped clean up, and then wrote another letter to Isa before heading to bed.

 **OOOOOO**

"No, no, I'm sorry."

The sound of Xehanort's voice dragged Lea out of the deep sleep that he'd been in, and he grumbled as he looked over his shoulder at him.

Xehanort appeared to be asleep, just as he had been the last time this had happened, but he was shifting around in bed, twisted up in his blankets.

"I never wanted this." he whimpered – whimpered! Seriously? Lea shook his head in disgust and laid back down.

"I didn't mean..."

With an aggravated sigh, Lea grabbed his pillow and pulled down over his ears to try and muffle Xehanort's words. Who in the hell was he talking to anyway? Ansem?

"I'm sorry, Master! Don't leave me alone!"

Or Master Limahl. Wonderful.

"Cut it out, Nort-nort." Lea grumbled. "I'm trying to sleep here."

"Papa..."

"Oh damn it all." Lea swung his legs out of bed and reached across the narrow gap between the beds to grab Xehanort's shoulder and shake him awake. The instant he touched him, however, Xehanort's eyes flew open, he bolted upright in bed, and No Name appeared in his hand in an instant. Before Lea could blink, he found his head titled back as far as it could go, with the keyblade pressed against his neck. He swallowed, heart hammering, and felt the blade press even harder for a second.

"Lea?" Xehanort said, and the pressure against his neck abruptly vanished as the keyblade was withdrawn and dismissed. "What in the worlds?"

Lea rubbed at his neck, half expecting to find a gaping hole and copious amounts of blood, but there was nothing. "You were having a bad dream or something."

"You tried to wake me up." It was a statement, not a question. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah,"

There was a barely audible sigh. "I apologize, Lea. I had no idea that was you. Just... try to avoid doing that again in the future."

"I sure as hell intend to."

"If you need to wake me, calling my name is a better option." Lea saw Xehanort's silhouette lie back down. "Go back to sleep. We leave here tomorrow."

"Sure," Lea said in a faint voice, "Sleep, yeah, after that?"

" _Sleep_ , Lea."

 _Not again_ , was all Lea had time to think before Xehanort's magic once again put him under.

 ** **OOOOOO****

Waves rolled endlessly on beneath them as Lea, on his glider, followed Xehanort over the ocean towards the distant shore. They'd entered this world just at sunset, flying high over a large port city that had loud music and drunken voices drifting up from it, before they'd changed direction and headed out over the open ocean. Full night had quickly fallen, and they found their way lit only by the glittering hearts of the other worlds. There was no sign of any kind of moon that Lea could see.

After flying for a while, Lea sighed in relief to see Xehanort descending towards a river estuary that was just barely visible in the nighttime gloom. Waves broke upon a sandy beach as they came down for a landing and walked a short distance to a small, wooden canoe that was dragged up onto the sand aside the river. Without a word spoken, Xehanort gestured for Lea to get in. Lea clambered in, and Xehanort easily launched the canoe into the river and hopped in himself. There were no paddles, but they seemed to not be needed as the canoe easily began moving upstream, against the river current.

Lea looked back at Xehanort to find the keyblade master seated in the back of the canoe, staring quietly at the river ahead. His hair was moving in the ocean breeze, almost like a living entity in its own right, and Lea shivered and looked away as Xehanort's magic flickered over his skin.

The sound of the waves faded as they slowly moved upriver, and the tall trees with their moss-draped branches and long, twisted roots that were half out of the water closed over them, blocking out the light from the other worlds. Cicadas, frogs, and crickets began their calls, filling the air with their songs as the ocean breeze vanished, and Lea felt sweat break out on his forehead as the cloying humidity seemed to suddenly press in around him. Buzzing insects flew close to him, and he reached up and swatted at them. Sweat ran down his face and down the back of his neck as his coat's inner lining seemed to stick to him.

"Do not take your coat off." Xehanort said sternly as Lea reached for the zipper.

"C'mon, it's hotter than hell here."

"I know it is, but that coat is the best protection you have against the mosquitoes that will make a meal out of you at the first possible chance."

"What, are the mosquitoes here worse than the ones in Radiant Garden?"

"The ones here carry disease, and malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, tularemia, and other mosquito-borne diseases are not something you wish to tangle with. So, no matter how hot it becomes, keep your coat on."

Lea crossed his arms over his chest and tried to ignore how hot it was getting. "Fine."

The canoe continued it's silent glide through the river, and ahead and two the left, there was a large splash. Lea jumped and looked in that direction, but he saw nothing but ripples in the water.

"Be at ease, Lea." Xehanort said quietly. "That was an alligator, a large reptile native to this river. Nothing here will harm you as long as you are with me."

"That's not what you said before we came here."

" _Before we go anywhere, Lea," Xehanort said firmly, "I want you to listen closely, so I don't have to repeat this. We are going to the other side of the world of the Caribbean to meet someone. This person is very powerful and dangerous when angered. Thankfully, she likes me, but even I won't be able to save you if you offend her. Keep your mouth shut, and if she speaks to you, keep your tone civil. Am I understood?"_

 _Lea gave him a strange look. "You're admitting that someone is more powerful than you?"_

" _Yes, Lea, I am."_

" _And here I thought that you were the most powerful human in the worlds"_

 _Xehanort summoned his glider and opened the Lanes Between. "I never said she was human."_

Lea shivered again. Not human? What did she look like then? Some kind of creature? And just how powerful was she? Around them, the trees seemed to close in as the river narrowed, and the branches above them rustled as things scuttled across them.

"Tia Dalma will not harm you unless you offend her, so keep your tongue behind your teeth and you should be fine."

"'Should be' you say."

"Well, she has forcibly kept men that caught her attention by her side before, but I think I'll be able to convince her to not do that to you, as long as you don't do anything stupid." Lea looked over his shoulder to see Xehanort looking at him with one side of his mouth curled up into a smile.

He turned back around just in time to see a low clinging fog rising from the water in front of them. "What's to stop her from keeping a hold of you, then?"

"Only that she knows that there are those even more powerful than her and that it wouldn't do to risk angering them."

"And keeping you will anger them?"

"Yes."

"Who, the Council of the Keys?"

"No, someone far more powerful than they could ever dream to be."

Lea opened his mouth to ask another question, but a faint glow from between the trees stopped him. It danced in and out of view, being visible between the thick tree trunks only for a fraction of a second before vanishing. It was a flame of some kind, he could detect that right away, but he couldn't pick up anything else about it.

"It's just a porch light." Xehanort said from behind him, and sure enough, the canoe rounded a bend in the river, which allowed them to see the small shack situated right on the water front, with the elderly man seated in a rocking chair, a hound dog at his feet. The man raised a hand that was withered with age in a greeting, and Lea hesitantly returned it.

"People live here?" he asked.

"They do. It can be a very hard life at times, but no one here would trade it for anything."

Lea wiped the sweat from his forehead and wondered about that as they left the old man and his little shack behind them. After living for years in Radiant Garden, he couldn't imagine life without electricity and running water. Even the castle at Never Was had had both of those, yet these people were apparently happy without them.

"I guess you can't miss what you've never had." he said quietly as they passed another riverside shack, this one ringing with the sound of children laughing and playing.

"It's like this on several worlds where technology has not advanced very far. These people are very proud and would soundly reject any attempt to 'help' them. As far as they are concerned, they have everything they need, so such 'help' is condescending at best, insulting at worst. They are wary of outsiders and watch everyone but me closely, but they will not harm you as long as you don't start anything."

"You seem to know a lot about this place."

"I lived here for a short time years ago."

"So do you have a little shack to call your own somewhere along this river?"

"It wasn't along the river; it was quite a distance into the forest, and no. I haven't been here since Ventus was small, and abandoned structures don't last very long in this climate." Xehanort paused for a second as they passed more riverside shacks. "Though I suppose it could be possible that Tia Dalma has maintained it for me. We will have to see."

Ahead of them, the river went around a bend, the fog creeping along its surface thickened, and the sounds of the swamp seemed to quiet and fade. Along the turn, on the right shore, a structure came into a view. It was a shack, much larger than the others that they'd seen so far, and it sat above the water on tree roots and posts. A ladder led down from a front porch to a small jetty, and Lea realized that the canoe was heading right for that jetty.

"Remember what I told you earlier." Xehanort said. "Keep your mouth shut unless you are spoken to, and keep your tongue civil when you do speak."

"Did you give the same warnings to Ventus?"

"Ventus was a nine year old boy, one that Tia Dalma was fond of, so any attitude on his part resulted in at worst being sent to the corner. You are a grown man."

"Fine."

The canoe bumped into the small jetty, and Xehanort easily hopped onto it and used a rope that had been in the back of the canoe to tie it up. Lea slowly climbed out to join him, and they went up the ladder to the porch above.

Insects buzzed around the porch light, and Xehanort took a quick glance through a mullioned window set into the door before he knocked. The door swung slowly open on creaking hinges, and the voice of a siren called out from within. Lea didn't understand the words, but the invitation was clear as they stepped inside.

The single room that took up the interior of the entire shack was warmly lit by dozens of candles that were mounted on candelabras along the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and sitting on tables. Jars and baskets also hung from the ceiling, and Lea backed up a step when he realized that one jar was full of eyeballs, all of which were staring at him. He carefully stepped around them, and they followed him as he went. A long, white snake was draped from one of the posts that supported the roof, and it raised its head and hissed at him as he followed Xehanort to the center of the room.

A woman that had to be Tia Dalma was seated there at a table that was covered with books, candles, a few bats mounted on stands, and several crab claws. She looked up when the door opened, and her face slowly melted into a wide smile that showed her teeth. She said something that was probably Xehanort's name, but Lea couldn't be sure.

She stood up from her chair, which allowed Lea to get a good look at her dreadlocked hair, as well as the scrappy dress she was wearing.

 _How in the world does she stand wearing that heavy thing in this heat?_ Lea wondered as she stepped forward to greet Xehanort.

"Tia Dalma," Xehanort said with a smile as he kissed her on the cheek, "it's been a long time."

Lea frowned as her thick accent caused him to miss what she said in reply. She then looked past Xehanort, and her smile widened when she saw Lea standing there.

"An who is dis?" she asked, as she stepped towards him to take a closer look. Lea swallowed and just barely managed to stop himself from taking a step back away from her. Something about her... Her presence felt _heavy_ – that was the only way he could describe it. It made the feel of Xehanort's power seem slight in comparison.

"This is Lea." Xehanort replied as he turned to give Lea another warning look. "He's my newest apprentice."

Tia Dalma turned back towards Xehanort and asked him a question that Lea once again couldn't understand from her accent, but he did hear Ventus' name being mentioned.

"Ventus is no longer with me." was Xehanort's flat answer, and Tia Dalma gave him a long look before she abruptly turned back to face Lea. She stepped closer to him, close enough for him to see the markings on her face, and the hair on the back of his arms stood up as she reached up to carefully touch his face with one slim hand.

"You heart heavy wid worry." she told him, and Lea jumped at the insight. "Yah broder in danger."

"Y.. yeah." He looked directly at her – were her eyes red? "How did you know that? Did Xehanort tell you?"

She stepped away and moved over to a small sofa, where she made herself comfortable. "I know many tings, Lea Rosso. I know what you seek. I know why you here."

"And why are we here?"

Tia Dalma gave Xehanort a sharp look, and the Keyblade Master bowed his head before he went to a chair close to her and sat down.

"Go wait out on the porch, Lea." Xehanort said quietly. "Tia Dalma and I have things to discuss in private."

Lea shook himself and wrenched his gaze away from Tia Dalma. "What?"

"Go outside, and wait on the porch while Tia Dalma and I talk. I will be out to fetch you when we are done."

Lea blinked in confusion. "Um, okay then."

Xehanort made a shooing motion with his hand, and Lea shook his head again as he turned and walked without a word out of the shack to stand on the porch. The floorboards creaked loudly with every step as he went, and the sound of the door closing behind him made him start and look up.

"What the hell?" he muttered as he reached up and rubbed his eyes. "What was that all about?"

He leaned back against the wall behind him as the sounds of the swamp surrounded him. Despite the thin walls, he couldn't hear any sound from within the shack, which meant he wouldn't be able to eavesdrop on Xehanort and Tia Dalma's conversation.

Lights started going out behind windows and on the porches of the other shacks, deepening the gloom, until he couldn't see anything past the soft yellow glow of Tia Dalma's porch light. The fog rising off the water grew thicker and swirled about the canoe and jetty, and Lea shivered despite the heat. Sweat ran down the back of his neck, and he blew out a breath and wiped his forehead with the back of his gloved hand.

"To hell with it." he grumbled as he unzipped his coat and shrugged it off. The coat's lining peeled away from his bare arms as he let it fall to the porch, and he sighed as the temperature around him seemed to drop a few degrees. He leaned back against the wall of the shack, still not able to hear anything from inside, slapped away a few mosquitoes, and crossed his arms over his chest to wait.

Several minutes later, the front door opened, and Xehanort's voice called for him to come back in. Lea sighed again, picked up his coat, slipped it back on, zipped it up, and went inside.

Xehanort, he was quick to notice, was still in the chair, but his eyes were closed, and his head was bowed. Tia Dalma was staring at him with a hard look that made Lea shiver again, but then she looked up at him, and the look was quickly replaced by a warm smile. She gestured Lea into a nearby chair, and as he sat, Xehanort looked up at her. It was hard to tell in the yellow lighting, but his eyes appeared to have reddened circles around them. Had he been crying or something?

"So, what can you tell me, Tia Dalma?" he asked, and his voice came out hoarse. He cleared it and then spoke again. "Have they been here?"

"What you seek is not here." Tia Dalma said. "Dem stay away from here because dem feer me."

"Who?" Lea asked, which caused Xehanort and Tia Dalma to look at him. "The Council?"

"Indeed." Xehanort was the one to answer. "We know where they have their castle, but I can tell that Isa has not been there in some time."

"Dem moving him round to mek it hard to find him." Tia Dalma added, and then she looked at Xehanort. "You are hoping dat you'll be able to ambush dem somewhere."

Xehanort nodded. "That's what I would like to happen. Their castle's wards are impressive and I would have no chance of breaching them without being noticed."

"Wait," Lea sat up in the chair, "you said before that you can track Isa."

"I can." Xehanort nodded again. "But the Council knows that, so they don't keep him in one place long."

"But they said the entire reason they took him was to use him for bait. Why won't they let you get close?"

"That is the question, isn't it?"

"Dem has a reason." Tia Dalma said. "Dem not foolish." She looked at Xehanort. "You must be careful. Dem know you following dem an will plan for it."

"Where are they now?" Lea asked.

Xehanort paused and titled his head to the side. "On one of the outer worlds. We're too far away for me to know exactly which one though."

Lea jumped to his feet. "So why are we just sitting here? Let's get going!"

"Sit down, Lea." Xehanort waved at him to sit. "They know that I'll be following them, so they'll simply keep moving to stay ahead of us. We have to find out which worlds that they frequently stop at, as well as the ones they avoid, so we can lie in wait for them."

"Even you stand no chance agenst all sevan at once." Tia Dalma said as she gave Xehanort a stern look. "De powa of yah ancestas will not help you dere."

The power of his ancestors? Lea mouthed the words to himself, wondering what they were supposed to mean.

"I know it won't." Xehanort said, his voice suddenly quiet. "Neither will they, for that matter, which is why I haven't gone to them about this."

Tia Dalma gave Xehanort a knowing look. "You should speak to him."

"He won't listen to me. Not anymore." Xehanort stood up. "You will let me know if the Council comes near here?"

Tia Dalma stood up as well. "I will." She reached out and placed her hand against Xehanort's cheek. "Dem walk wid you, even if you don' believe it."

"With the way I have shamed the one who shares my name, I highly doubt that." Xehanort waved at Lea. "Let's go, Lea." He turned towards Tia Dalma, and Lea wasn't sure what to make of the look that passed between them then. Xehanort looked resigned, while Tia Dalma simply nodded in understanding, understanding of what, Lea didn't know.

Xehanort abruptly turned away and began to walk to the door. Lea fell into step behind him.

"Lea." Tia Dalma said from behind, and Lea stopped in midstep. He heard Xehanort keep walking, and heard the shack's door open and shut as he went outside.

Tia Dalma stepped up to him, and Lea felt her presence press down on him as she moved closer.

"You don' truss him." she said simply.

"No, I don't. I can't, not after everything he's done."

She looked up at him, and her red eyes seemed to hold him in place. "You mus not let him fall again. If he does, He will burn him where he stand."

"Who?" Lea voice came out as nearly a whisper.

"Look to de sun. Den you will see. Him always watching. If you wan Isa back, you mus not let Xehanort fall."

Lea simply stared at her. No words came to him, and she smiled at him before she backed away. She then turned away from him, and Lea shivered as a chill crept up his spine.

They got back to the canoe and got started back towards the ocean without any further delay. As they were moving away from Tia Dalma's shack, Xehanort turned to look back at it.

"Aye Calypso, the places you've been to, the things that you've shown us, the stories you tell." he said quietly in a way that almost sounded like he was singing.

"Where did that come from?" Lea asked as he looked over his shoulder.

Xehanort stared silently at the slowly receding shack until it vanished behind a bend in the river, and then he sighed and turned back to face the front of the canoe. "From a world universes away from here." He slumped down and bowed his head for a moment, and Lea quickly turned away.

The rest of the trip back down the river to the ocean was strangely peaceful. The swamp was completely dark, with every porch light out for the night, and Xehanort and Lea spoke not a word as they rode the river current back to the shore. They dragged the canoe back up onto the sand, and it was then that Lea finally broke the silence.

"Why couldn't we have just flown there?" he asked as they summoned their gliders.

"We never would have been able to find her that way." Xehanort replied in a subdued tone. "One can only find Tia Dalma if she allows you to, and she expects visitors to come up the river. Trying to get to her directly would have resulted in us flying endlessly in circles, unable to see her shack."

"Why in the hell does she do that?"

"Who knows what the gods think?" Xehanort's eyes took on a faraway look for a second. "Let's go. We still have another world to get to."

"When you said we were going to see a god, Tia Dalma wasn't what I'd had in mind."

Xehanort opened the Lanes Between. "Tia Dalma has lived as a human for centuries, though it wasn't always her own choice. I suspect that she's gotten rather used to it by now."

"She just didn't seem all that powerful. More powerful than you, it seemed, but still."

"Compared to others, she isn't, but she's still miles above me, and she could have killed us both with a thought if she had so wished."

Lea looked back towards Tia Dalma's shack, and he shivered as the temperature around him seemed to take a sudden drop. He quickly turned back to Xehanort. "Well, where to now?"

"Olympus Coliseum. Well, the town aside it, but close enough."

"Somehow I don't see Hercules as the type to sit and have a chat with you."

Xehanort gave Lea a look. "Who said anything about him? There are other gods there. Now, follow me. Don't dawdle." With a flap of his glider wings, Xehanort launched himself up into the air. Lea rolled his eyes, mounted his own glider, and followed.

 **OOOOOO**

The city of Thebes that sat in the shadow of Olympus Coliseum was hot and sunny when they exited the Lanes Between just outside of town. Lea felt the sun beat down on him, and he was glad for the faint breeze that brushed across his face as they came down for a landing. Once they had dismissed their keyblades, Xehanort set off at a brisk pace down the nearest road into town, and even with his long legs, Lea had to walk quickly to keep up with him.

"Hey, wait up! Where are we going?"

Xehanort didn't answer, nor did he slow down or show any other signs that he had heard Lea's question. He continued down the road and through an open gate that led into the city proper. The road turned into a street that widened as it wound through tightly packed stone buildings. Other streets crossed over it, and Lea quickly lost track of all the turns and twists that they made as Xehanort seemed to chose directions at random.

"You know where you're going, right?" Lea called out as they came up on a marketplace, one more bustling than the one at Meadowseele. He had to push his way past people to keep Xehanort in sight through the throng. Xehanort didn't slow down, and Lea grumbled to himself as he squeezed himself through a large group of people and chased after him.

The press finally eased after several blocks, which allowed Lea to run to catch up to Xehanort. "Are you trying to ditch me or something?"

Xehanort finally paused in his stride. "And here I thought you'd be eager to finally have a shower and bath after everything."

"What? Seriously, is that where we're going?"

"Yes. There is a public bathhouse up not too much further ahead, by the gymnasium up there, and we should really be clean before our next meeting."

Lea flicked his eyes up to look at the impressive stone and concrete structure up the street, before the rest of Xehanort's sentence percolated through his brain. "Public.. bathhouse?"

Xehanort nodded. "Yes, it's a public one."

"So there will be other people in there?"

"Yes, Lea."

"So we'll have to be naked?"

"That's generally a requirement of bathing, yes."

"In front of other people?"

Xehanort rolled his eyes and began to walk away. "Do you wish to bathe or not, Lea?"

Lea hurried to keep up. "I do! Just...not in front of other people." _Especially not you._ "And the last time I had to bathe in front of others, in case you've forgotten, I got felt up by a group of strange women."

"If Ventus could do it, so can you."

"You brought Ventus to these places?"

"Of course. He and I lived on the road, so it's not like we had a ready made shower and tub that we carted along with us. Now hurry up. We have someone we need to meet soon."

Lea stopped and stared after Xehanort's retreating back for a moment, and then he shook his head and hurried to catch up.

The bathhouse was a simple affair, just a large building with one large entrance, no windows, and with various designs and shapes carved into the exterior walls. The sounds of voices and running and splashing water came from within. Xehanort walked right up the steps and through the door, and Lea just stopped and watched him.

After a week with no running water, with only conjured water and rags for bathing, a hot bath sounded wonderful. And one would be waiting for him inside no doubt.

Along with Xehanort.

And a bunch of other naked people.

"Let's go, Lea." came Xehanort's voice from somewhere inside. "Unless you _want_ to go around smelling like you came from a garbage can."

"I hate him." Lea muttered to himself. He took a deep breath, told his suddenly racing heart to calm down (Which it ignored.), and went up the steps and through the wide open doorway.

Inside he found Xehanort speaking to a teenager dressed in a green, knee length, sleeveless, wool tunic. Lea didn't understand a drop of the language, but it wasn't hard to know that it was Greek being spoken. Xehanort passed some munny off to the boy, who gave him an eager smile and then scurried off.

"What was that about?" Lea asked as he came up to stand beside Xehanort.

"Paying that slave boy to get us some towels and wash our clothes for us."

Lea turned to look in the direction the boy had vanished. "He's a slave?"

"Yes. I told you before that many worlds have child slavery. This is one of them."

"It's just weird to see it, you know? Slavery has been illegal on Radiant Garden -"

"For over 800 years, since Kathan Hart seized the throne." Xehanort looked over at Lea. "What? I know my family history. Lord Ansem made sure of that."

"It's even weirder to hear you speaking so casually about Radiant Garden's history."

Xehanort shrugged his coat off and began to walk towards a doorway on the left wall of the room they were standing in. "It wouldn't do for the world's heir to not know its history."

Lea's throat nearly squeezed itself shut as he saw Xehanort begin to undress as he disappeared through a cloud of steam that wafted and drifted in from the other room. He swallowed heavily and followed.

 **OOOOOO**

This was quite possible the weirdest thing he'd ever done, Lea thought as he reclined in the large communal pool. There weren't too many bathers aside from him and Xehanort, and he was grateful for that, as it allowed him to sit at the opposite end of the pool from the Keyblade Master and everyone else. He slouched down further on the stone step that he sat on until the water was nearly up to his neck. At least the water was warm...

That first room had been a large sauna, and Lea had been grateful for the billowing clouds as he and Xehanort had undressed and given their coats and clothing over to the slave boy to take care of. Xehanort had then calmly parked himself on the nearest bench, leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes, while Lea had stood there, trying to look anywhere but at him, his cheeks burning hotter than his hottest fire.

"Just sit down, Lea." Xehanort had said without opening his eyes. "I'm not going to molest you."

Lea had bitten back the reply that would have certainly resulted in him being chucked back into Radiant Garden's castle dungeon, moved as far away from Xehanort as possible, and sat down. They'd sat there for several minutes before moving into the warm water pool.

Lea sunk down until the water was nearly touching his nose and absently scratched at his left shoulder. The sound of Xehanort's voice, speaking Greek again, caught his attention, and he looked over to see him talking to someone holding a serving tray in their hand. Xehanort handed over a bit more munny and then pointed at Lea.

Lea felt his heart sink. Oh great, someone was going to see him naked up close – again. He'd had a few admiring looks since he'd walked in (Not near as many as Xehanort though – he wasn't sure if he should be annoyed by that or not.) and he didn't need any more. He'd been to the world enough to know that homosexuality was openly practiced, and while he believed that people had the right to bang whomever they wanted, he certainly didn't want other guys eyeing him. No matter what that crazy bitch Larxene had said about him and Roxas.

Words spoken in Greek right next to him startled Lea from his thoughts, and he jumped slightly and looked up and to his left to see the person Xehanort had been speaking to standing there, holding out a cake of some kind. Lea blinked at it, and then he looked across the pool at Xehanort, who nodded and held up his own cake. Lea then turned back towards the seller, and he managed a weak smile and a quiet "Thank you." as he took the offered cake.

The seller smiled, nodded, and then walked away, and Lea bit into the cake and couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face as the sweet taste of honey hit his tongue. He hadn't had a honey cake in forever, ever since -

 _Mom last made them._

With that, Lea's smile vanished, and he closed his eyes as his heart gave a hard, painful twist. After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked over at Xehanort, who had just finished off his own cake if the way he was licking his fingers was any indication. The Keyblade Master then leaned back against the ledge behind him and seemed to relax. He closed his eyes and sank a little further down into the water.

It wasn't fair.

Everything that Xehanort had done: all the lives he had stolen, all the Heartless he had created, all of the worlds that he had destroyed, and he gets to relax in a warm bath while the worlds he had wrecked struggled to rebuild. He'd taken Isa away, but Lea has to be polite to him and call him by his title. Lea growled quietly to himself and clenched his hands into fists under the water. He didn't know how, but someway, he had to make Xehanort pay. As soon as Isa was safe -

"Lea!" Xehanort's voice snapped Lea out of his thoughts again, and for one panicked moment, he wondered if the man had heard his thoughts. Oh hell, Xehanort being telepathic would be the _worst_ -

"Lea, let's go."

Lea was kicked out of his thoughts again. "Huh, what?"

Xehanort had gotten out of the pool and was standing on the edge of it, still naked. A few of the other men were giving him appreciative looks.

 _Eyes up,_ Lea thought to himself, _Eyes up, eyes up. Don't look down at the rest of him._

"I said, let's go." Xehanort repeated his statement.

"Are we done already? I was just getting comfortable..."

"Sure you were, and no, we just need to go into the next room. Now hurry up. We still have a meeting to get to after this."

Xehanort turned and walked out of the room, water streaming freely from his hair and down his -

 _Nope, don't look._ Lea quickly turned his head away. Only once Xehanort was out of sight, did he stand up from the water, and blushing like mad at the whistles and catcalls, follow him into the next area.

 **OOOOOO**

"That water was cold." Lea grumped as he followed Xehanort down a narrow street about 20 minutes later.

Xehanort's mouth twitched. "I tried to warn you, but you just jumped right in."

"Yeah, you tried to warn me, as I was already jumping in." Lea pulled his freshly washed coat tighter around him, trying to clear off the chill from his frigid plunge. "Why in the hell do they have a cold water bath after a warm one?"

"They believe it closes the pores and prevents things from entering the body."

"That makes no sense."

"A lot of things about their culture make no sense, but they are several hundred years behind Radiant Garden in many fields, so it's to be expected." Xehanort smiled faintly. "Be glad they at least have bathing. Some cultures don't believe in it."

" _Seriously?_ "

"Seriously. They're reasons for that vary wildly, but some people only bathe on rare occasions, like after getting into a bloody battle, or after childbirth."

"Remind me never to go to those worlds."

"Sometimes it's due to ignorance, sometimes it's due to a lack of clean water, but I generally avoid those worlds. Ignorance can make things dangerous for people like us, and a lack of clean water speaks for itself."

"Can't you conjure them some?"

"Conjuring enough water for a large group of people would tire out even someone like me, and then they would promptly burn me at the stake for openly doing magic, so that would be a no."

"So is there a list of worlds that are too hostile to go to?"

"Some, yes, and I will make sure you know those worlds, but sometimes even a hostile world must be visited. You just have to be careful to keep your head down, your mouth shut, and avoid attracting attention while there."

"Note made. So... how much munny did you give that slave for taking care of our clothes? I thought he was going to kiss you before we left."

"Enough to buy his freedom if he wished."

"Why did you do that? It's nice of you, but it seems..."

"Out of character? Come now, Lea, even after I fell, I wasn't _completely_ evil."

"No, just mostly, so why did you do that?"

Xehanort gave him a halfhearted glare."Because Ventus would have wanted me to. He loathed slavery and told me once that he was going to free every slave in all the worlds one day. Every slave that we encountered after that, I either freed them myself or gave them the money to buy their own freedom."

"Wow, that's..." Lea hesitated. "...really nice of you. Didn't know you had it in you."

"It's amazing what one will do to make their child smile."

Lea suddenly pictured a younger Ventus, smiling up at Xehanort, and he quickly banished the image as it made his heart ache for some reason.

"So, where are we going?" he asked.

"A little tavern up here a bit. We'll have a seat at an outdoor table, have a drink, and wait for the one we're supposed to meet to show up."

"Who are we meeting?"

"Apollo, probably. It always seems to be him when I come out this way."

Lea stumbled as his mind seemed to screech to a halt for a moment. "Apollo? The god of the sun Apollo?"

"Sun god?" Xehanort snorted. "He wishes. Otherwise yes, that Apollo."

Xehanort stepped off the street and over to a small table under a linen canopy. He said something in Greek to a person standing inside an open door a few feet away, and then he sat down and gestured for Lea to do the same.

No sooner had Lea sat down than the person Xehanort had spoken to was back, carrying two goblets full of a pale red liquid. Xehanort said something else, passed over some munny, and the person snatched it up and vanished back through the doorway.

Lea picked up his goblet – which reminded him of a sports trophy his father had won as a boy – and sniffed at the liquid inside. "Is this wine?"

Xehanort nodded a took a drink from his own goblet. "It is. I should warn you though that it's cut with water here, as alcohol consumption is somewhat frowned upon."

"Why even bother then?" Lea took a sip and made a face at the watered down taste.

"Because everywhere you go, humans need their vices, even if their culture dislikes it. Now, drink the wine."

Lea gave Xehanort a look before taking another sip. "So now what?"

"Now we wait and see if anyone shows."

Lea made a small "Hmm," as he looked around. The patio they were sitting on had a few other tables, but most were unoccupied. The table furthest from them had a tall, blond haired man sitting at it, but the rest were empty. The person who had served the wine was nowhere in sight, and the buildings nearby all seemed to be deserted. Other than the occasional notes of birdsong, the area was quiet.

"Ah," Xehanort said after a few minutes had passed. "Here he comes."

Lea paused in raising his goblet to his mouth and looked at Xehanort. "Who, Apollo?"

"Yes, you should be able to sense his approach."

Lea stilled. He titled his head to the side and frowned. "I feel.. something. Almost like a feeling of heaviness?"

Xehanort nodded. "That's him."

"He feels like Tia Dalma did."

"That feeling will increase in intensity as he moves closer to us. He's far more powerful than her."

"How do you know he won't just, you know, kill you where you sit once he gets here? I'm sure all the gods are more than a little pissed at you over everything." Lea heard a loud huff from the blond man at the other table.

"Oh, they are." Xehanort replied. "Believe me, I know, but Apollo, as well as the others, will keep their hands to themselves, so I have no fear of that."

"But how do you know that for sure?"

"I have my ways, Lea, that's all you need to know for now."

Lea slumped down in his chair. "You're keeping secrets from me."

"I am, just as my master kept things from me sometimes. You'll survive, like I did, so quit sulking."

Lea grumbled to himself as the feeling of heaviness increased, pressing down on him as though it wanted to smash him down through his chair and down onto the patio.

"Oh, now he's just being an ass." Xehanort said quietly.

"He really doesn't like you. You must have really pissed him off with the whole 'restart the Keyblade War' thing." Lea commented as sweat popped out on his forehead.

"Apollo hated me long before that plan ever got started, trust me. I'm not sure if it's always him I encounter because he's hoping to take a shot at me sometime, or if his father finds it amusing when the two of us interact."

"He does know that I had nothing to do with whatever you did that he hates you for, right?"

"Oh, I'm sure he does, just as I also know that he doesn't care."

The man at the other table hissed something too low for Lea to understand, and the feeling of heaviness eased.

"Thank the skies above." Lea mumbled as he sat up in his chair.

Xehanort said nothing. He kept still in his own chair, straight backed and quiet, as Apollo moved closer. Lea looked at him, frowning in confusion, at the sudden change in behavior.

"Finally, you show proper respect for my presence." came a voice, and Lea yelped and jumped enough that he came off of the seat of the chair for a split second.

The formerly deserted street now had a person standing in it, a man that was nearly a head taller than Xehanort. Hair that was a mass of golden blond curls covered his head and spilled down the back of his neck. His face reminded Lea of a marble statue: chiseled and perfectly smooth, with a pair of pale blue eyes that glared down at Xehanort. He was wearing a golden tunic that hung off one shoulder and went down to his knees, along with a pair of sandals. Lea felt suddenly uneasy looking at him, and it had nothing to do with the man's powerful, looming presence.

"Don't flatter yourself." Xehanort said easily. "You know full well who my respect is reserved for, and that it isn't you."

Apollo seemed to grow taller then, and he loomed over Xehanort, who didn't flinch at the angry god that was standing over him. Lea though felt sweat begin to run down his face and back, and he shuddered as his stomach clenched. "One day, Xehanort, one day. They are not going to protect you forever."

Xehanort waved that away. "Yes, yes, when that day arrives you'll make me pay for my insolence, and so on and so forth. You say that every time we meet. Why don't you just spare yourself the breath and both of us the time, and just tell me what I need to know?"

Apollo snarled wordlessly. "No, they're not anywhere near here." he spat. "They avoid all of the worlds where the Old Gods are. It would seem that your ancestry is known to them."

"That will make things easier." Xehanort said in a thoughtful tone. "If they avoid the gods, that narrows the amount of worlds they can stay on considerably."

"You are making the assumption that they know of all of us." Apollo said with a sneer, and Lea shivered at his tone. "If a world's gods are not known to them, they will not hesitate to stop there."

"Hmm, yes, that is true. Still though, that cuts down on the worlds they will stop on quite a bit, and every little bit will help here."

"You are a fool, Xehanort, if you think that they don't know of your ability to track the poor creature that you've made into your vessel. The others made no attempt to keep that knowledge secret."

"I am aware of that, yes, no need to remind me. Do you have any other useful information that I should know, or would you prefer to just keep insulting me?"

Apollo snarled again, and Lea pushed himself back into his chair as the feeling of the god's anger beat down on him, which made his head swim. "I have nothing more to say to you."

"Perhaps then, you should leave, before you make my apprentice pass out."

Apollo seemed to notice Lea then, and Lea managed to raise his aching head to meet the god's blue eyed gaze, and he vaguely noted that the god's face had no lines, wrinkles, or any other signs of aging. It was also perfectly symmetrical, and Lea flinched back away from it and lowered his head again.

"You will leave him alone, Apollo." came Xehanort's voice. "He's done nothing to you."

"I should put him out of his misery right now, before you decide to rip his heart in two."

Lea faintly heard Xehanort's chair being pushed back as he stood. "Do not touch him."

"It would be doing him a kindness." Lea felt Apollo's power pressing down on him again.

"You know what he will do if you deliberately harm one of his creatures." Xehanort stated firmly.

The pressure seemed to ease for a moment, and then it receded. "Yes, that is true. I suppose I will have to leave this one to your _tender mercies_ then."

"That would be greatly appreciated." Xehanort's words were dry enough to start a fire with. "Now leave."

Apollo growled. "One day, one day."

"Yes, yes, yes, I've heard it all before."

Apollo glared down at Xehanort one last time, and then he turned and began to walk away, and Lea felt the ground shaking under his footsteps.

"Oh andApollo?" Xehanort called out, which caused the god to pause. Xehanort smiled. "Please give my regards to your sister."

Apollo howled in rage, and Lea felt the god's power slam into him, like he'd run into a wall at full speed. His vision dimmed, his stomach rolled, and he found himself pressed down into the chair hard enough that his bones creaked under the strain.

"Enough!" came a third voice from behind them, the pressure abruptly vanished, and Lea felt an arm come around his shoulders and felt his head being held against a leather coat.

"Xehanort?" he said as the area spun dizzily around him.

Something cold was pressed to his lips. "Drink this, Lea." Such was his state that Lea didn't question the order. He allowed his head to be titled back so cool water could pour into his mouth, and he drank it down greedily. Above that, he could hear a third voice saying something, but he couldn't quite understand the words.

"Apollo is leaving now." Xehanort said quietly as he took the now empty cup away. "I never thought that he would be stupid enough to attack you, right in front of him, no less."

Lea wondered briefly who "him" was but decided it wasn't important enough to worry about. The sunlight shining down on the area seemed to dim, and he slumped down in Xehanort's arms as his passed out.

 **OOOOOO**

".. idiot!"

"I didn't expect..."

"... could have killed him if..."

"Apollo is..."

"Enough, Xehanort!"

Lea felt his body jump into wakefulness at the loud voice, and he blinked his eyes open to see a plain white ceiling above him. He realized right away that he was lying on something soft, that his coat and boots were not on, and that there were two presences nearby, the owners of the two voices he could hear, obviously. One was Xehanort, the other he didn't recognize. He felt power flickering across his skin, and he shivered. It wasn't Xehanort's; it was far more powerful than that, more powerful than even Apollo had felt, but there was none of the pressure that he'd felt with the Greek god. He didn't know how he knew, but he had the strongest feeling that what he was detecting was only a tiny fraction of this other person's true power, that it was tightly restrained in some way.

"You were foolish, Xehanort." came that the other voice, the same one he'd heard at the tavern, and it was low and had little inflection in it. "You should not have taunted him."

"I know." Xehanort's voice was strangely quiet.

"If I had not been there, Apollo would have killed your apprentice. Nothing would have been able to save him, not even you. I would have then been forced to punish him, which would have only made things even more difficult for you."

"I understand."

"Do you really, Xehanort? How many times have you said those two words in your life? How many times have you really understood the matter at hand? If you truly had understood, you would not be in this position to begin with." The room went silent for a moment.

"I will see to it that Apollo keeps away from you." came the second voice again. "I swear that you two are like fire and gasoline -"

What the hell was gasoline?

"- and it is only a matter of time before his jealousy makes him defy my orders."

"Maybe he shouldn't be so damned possessive of his twin then."

"Do not say it!" The second voice became a furious hiss. "Not a word!"

Xehanort kept silent, and Lea leveraged himself up to see who was talking.

Xehanort was kneeling on the floor, his head bowed, his face hidden by his hair. Standing in front of him was the blond man from the tavern, and he was glaring down at Xehanort with angry amber eyes. He wore only a simple, golden, long sleeved robe that went down to nearly the floor, and slippers on his feet instead of sandals. Lea blinked in confusion at the bizarre scene, and the stranger looked up at him. The angry gaze softened slightly, and then it turned back to glare down at Xehanort again.

"Keep this one alive." he snapped. "Do not harm him, and do not allow others to harm him either."

"I won't." Xehanort's voice was nearly a whisper, and Lea saw him shiver as he knelt there at the person's feet.

"Do not forget that I am watching you, Xehanort. You live now only because my son begged me to let you try and set right what you've ruined. Do not dishonor his name again."

Xehanort nodded. "Yes, my lord. It will be as you say."

The person stared down at him for a second longer, and then he simply disappeared. Lea reared his head back and rubbed at his eyes. One second there, the next second gone.

Xehanort remained on the floor for nearly a full minute after the stranger vanished, and then he took a deep, shuddering breath and got to his feet. He raked his hair back out of his face and turned to look at Lea.

Lea felt his jaw drop at Xehanort's appearance. His face was pale and drawn, like he was in pain, and his eyes had deep bags under them, like he hadn't slept in weeks. His hair hung lank and limp around his face, and he was shaking slightly.

"Are you all right, Lea?" he asked, his voice only marginally louder than it had been earlier.

 _Shouldn't I be asking you that?_ "I, um.. yeah? What the hell happened to you?" Lea stammered out.

"Nothing that I didn't deserve, so do not worry about me." Xehanort moved and carefully sat down at the foot of the narrow bed that Lea was on. "I need to apologize to you. I never should have brought you to this world. Apollo has hated me for decades, and I should have realized that he might try to hurt you since he couldn't touch me." Xehanort sighed. "Taunting him was an idiotic idea on my part, and it nearly cost you your life." Xehanort slumped down and stared down at the mattress. "I am sorry. I won't risk you like that again. You have my word."

Lea felt his mouth opening and closing without a sound leaving it. "Umm, okay?" he finally managed.

Xehanort sighed again and stood up. "You are to take it easy for the rest of the day, Lea. We're going to stay the night here, and we'll depart in the morning. Stay in this bed and relax; I'm going to fetch us lunch."

Xehanort moved across the small room and was out the door into the rest of the building before Lea could think of anything to say, leaving him alone in the empty room, with only the chirping of the birds outside for company.


	6. Eye In the Sky

**6.**

 **Eye In the Sky**

 _Dear Isa,_

 _I'm not sure even where to start with this one. The things I saw yesterday... just... How can I describe that in a letter?_

 _All the times Saïx sent me to the area around the coliseum for the Organization, and I'd never met the gods there. I knew they existed of course, but I'd never encountered them before yesterday. (Does Hercules count? Probably not.)_

 _Well, I should probably start at the beginning._

 _So you remember the world that Saïx used to send Luxord to? We went there, but we avoided the pirates and the crazy town and all that. Instead we went to the world's opposite side and went up a river in a canoe. The damned thing seemed to be moving by itself, since Norty and I sure as hell weren't rowing. I dunno, maybe Xehanort was doing it with magic or something, since he'd said he's a water elemental. Damned if I know if something like that is actually possible, but I'm not going to ask him._

 _Anyway, so we went quite a ways up this river, until we came to this shack sitting on the riverbank. The woman who lives there, Tia Dalma, is... weird. I mean she looks like just another person, (A drop dead gorgeous one at that) but just something about her. There was just this pressure around her, a heaviness that I could feel pushing down on me while I was around her. She seemed nice enough though. She knew that I was worried about you, though I had a helluva time understanding her. Her accent was thick._

 _Odd part is, the longer we talked, the easier it was for me to understand her. Her accent didn't fade or anything; I just started hearing what she was saying somehow. Maybe I should ask Xehanort about that one. He'd said that keyblade wielders learn languages really fast, so maybe that had something to do with it?_

 _Anyway, she said that the Council stays away from her world because they're afraid of her and that Xehanort stands no chance against all seven of them at once. He agreed, which I hadn't been expecting. I'd been waiting for him to say something about how they would all fall before his powers of Darkness or some other bull like that, but he only nodded and agreed._

 _The more normal he acts, the more it creeps me out. It's like I'm seeing Heir Xehanort again, before he trashed the world. I just keep thinking of the last few months before the world's fall, you know. All the disappearances, his insistence that Lord Ansem was merely ill, when he was really trapped in the Dark World, and we all believed him. Why wouldn't we? In the three years since his adoption, he'd never given any of us a reason to mistrust him._

 _Now whenever he acts like he did before everything went to hell, I can't help but wonder; is he being real here? Or is it all an act again?_

 _I'm afraid to find out._

 _He apologized to me again yesterday. He'd smarted off to a different god – Apollo – and Apollo had retaliated by attacking me. I'd thought I was going to be smashed down through the chair I was sitting in, but someone jumped in to save me. I don't know who that someone is, but I'd never seen Xehanort act so cowed. Never seem him cowed by anything, period. He was kneeling on the floor with his head bowed as this person bitched him out for being an idiot. I can't really tell you how I know this, but whoever that person was, he is more dangerous than Tia Dalma and Apollo combined. He had the feel of something tightly restrained and wanting to break free._

 _Xehanort said something about Apollo being possessive of his twin – huh, wonder if that's why Apollo hates him – and the other guy just snarled at him"Do not say it!" There's a story behind that; I know it. Anyway, Xehanort was told to not harm me, to not let others harm me, and to keep me alive, which he meekly agreed to, and then that other guy just vanished. Right in front of me! One second there, the next second not there! I don't know the hell he did that; not even Xemnas could teleport like that. Now that I think about it, it's like he did the opposite of what Apollo had done when he showed up earlier. Apollo just appeared, and then this other guy just disappeared. Maybe he's a god too? I'm going to be puzzling over that one for a while, I think._

 _Xehanort just stayed there on his knees for a while after the guy left, and when he stood up and looked at me... He looked like hell, Isa, worse than he did that morning in the cabin after he ran out. I asked him what had happened to him, and he said it was nothing that he didn't deserve. He sat down on the end of the bed I was lying on, and then he apologized and swore he would never risk me like that again. And weirdly enough, I think he was sincere about it. He then skittered out of the room to get us lunch, which left me staring after him in confusion about how he was acting._

 _We stayed overnight, and Xehanort insisted I needed to take it easy after Apollo's attack. He wouldn't let me get out of the damned bed until after we ate, and even then he would only let me go over to a nearby chair. I snapped at him about it, but he just quietly told me that Apollo had nearly killed me and there was no reason to push it. He didn't even raise his voice when he said it, and that kinda creeped me out. He's normally so stern when he's ordering me around, but ever since he got that royal bitching out, he's been really subdued._

 _I think I prefer the uptight "Master Xehanort" over this version of him. Never thought I'd say that, but it's true._

 _We'll be leaving soon. Xehanort wants me off of this world as soon as possible in case Apollo decides to fuck all and come after me again. We only stayed the night because of what had happened. I don't know where he plans for us to go after this, and I suppose I can ask him, along with the language thing, once I'm done writing this._

 _Well, that's it for now. We'll see what happens next._

 _Love you,_

 _Lea_

Lea closed up the book and slid it into his pack before he looked over at Xehanort. The Keyblade Master was at the room's small table, writing something himself. A large hardcover book sat on the table beside him.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked without looking up from his work. His voice was still low and subdued, and Lea shivered at the strangeness of it.

"Yeah," he said, "You?"

Xehanort gathered up his writing materials, as well as the book, and stuffed them into his coat pocket, and Lea stared at the sight of a rolled up scroll that was as long as his forearm vanishing into a small pocket.

"Let's go then."

They walked out of the hotel they had stayed the night in and out into the street. As soon as they stepped out into the bright sunlight, Lea felt someone watching him. The gaze didn't feel hostile, and a quick look around revealed no one. He shivered and hurried to keep pace with Xehanort as they walked out of town. The feeling of the watch persisted until they flew through the portal into the Lanes Between.

Once they were up in the pathways between the worlds, Xehanort flew up into a spot high above the worlds and gestured for Lea to join him there.

"What?" Lea asked as they hovered in place. "What are you doing?"

"Look, Lea," Xehanort said in a tone that was almost one of reverence. "Look down. What do you see?"

Lea glanced down and then looked back at Xehanort. "The worlds. So what?"

Xehanort flew over to hover right next to him. "No, Lea. I want you to look, _really_ look, and tell me what you see."

Lea looked at him for a moment, and then he slowly turned his head and looked down over the worlds.

Years of using the Corridors of Darkness had never allowed him to look at the spaces between the worlds, or at the worlds themselves. In the days since he'd started following Xehanort around, he hadn't paid any attention to their surroundings while traversing the Lanes Between.

Now he couldn't tear his gaze away from what lay spread out before him.

So many worlds, dozens upon dozens of them, swirling around in an endless expanse, dancing around the bright sun in the center. The circle that they followed was so massive that he could not see it it all without turning his glider from side to side. Magic flowed and ebbed, slowing changing colors as it went: red to purple, purple to blue, blue to green, and then green back to red. Behind it, bright pinpricks of light could be seen twinkling off in the far distance. Through it all, a single large rock, smaller than the worlds but still a fairly good size, wove its way between them, seeming to move with a will of its own.

"Do you see?" Xehanort asked quietly.

"Yeah," Lea replied after a moment, "I do."

"What you are seeing is the shattered remains of one single world that was destroyed in the keyblade war. Think about that for a moment. A group of people managed to gather and release so much energy that it was enough to shatter a world, one so large that no one can comprehend it."

"How?" Lea reluctantly tore his gaze away from the dancing worlds and looked at Xehanort. "How could normal humans do so much?"

"Such is the power of the keyblade." Xehanort's voice was very hushed, but it was no longer the subdued tone it had been. "The heart is a very powerful object, so much so that at least one civilization on one world used them as a power source before said civilization collapsed. A keyblade allows you to use that power, and somehow – no one knows exactly how – boosts it considerably.

"Right now, you have the power to reduce a decent sized house to ashes within moments, but by the time you reach Mastery, you will be able to burn an entire world if you so desire, with ease."

Lea felt his chest seize up for a moment. "Seriously?"

"Yes. Carrying a keyblade is a massive responsibility, as you must not only strive to maintain the balance between the Light and the Dark, but you must also keep the balance within yourself and watch it closely in those near to you. If you fail, then you get what happened to me."

"Was no one watching you?"

Xehanort didn't answer right away. "No. I kept well away from everyone except for Ventus while I was falling, and of course he had no chance of stopping me. He tried, but I ignored his pleas, as I believed that there was nothing wrong with me." He closed his eyes, and he was silent for a few minutes. "By the time I approached anyone else, it was too late for anyone to pull me back."

Xehanort shook himself then, and he opened his eyes and looked back at the spinning worlds. "Enough of that, that's not why I brought you up here." He pointed at the worlds spread out below them. "It is difficult to see with us this close, but the worlds are mostly on the same orbital plane."

"The same what?"

"Essentially, they are level with each other."

"Oh, right. I get it."

"There are some variations in that, but it matters little. Consider this your first lesson in navigation. Eraqus and I had the observatory on the Land of Departure to learn this; you are going to learn the hard way."

"Aqua never mentioned that."

Xehanort frowned at him. " _Master_ Aqua, and no, she wouldn't. You are not a student of hers, nor are you a resident of the castle, so she has no reason to mention it to you. Now pay attention. This seems chaotic at first glance, but it's far more orderly than first impressions would tell."

Xehanort pointed to one particularly bright world that was nearly on the other side of the sun and just barely visible within the glare. "That is Radiant Garden."

Lea looked at it, and then he frowned in confusion. "How can you tell? It just looks like any of the others to me."

"The fact that it is one of the larger ones helps. There are only a few worlds larger than it, and if you truly look, you will be able to see its heart. Hearts are unique to each world, just as they are to each individual. In time, you will be able to tell them apart."

Lea cocked his head to the side and looked at his homeworld for a moment as he allowed his heart to take a look. The worlds in front of them lit up with a plethora of glittering hearts then, bright and sparkling. Here and there, damage from Heartless could still be seen, including on Radiant Garden's, but the smothering Darkness that had once swallowed them was nowhere in sight.

After a moment, he shook his head and let the hearts go invisible again. "I can't see it."

"Of course, you can't. As I said, it takes time. Now," Xehanort fluttered over to Lea's other side, "all of the worlds orbit the sun in a counterclockwise movement, and each is one their own separate orbit. As a result of that, each has its own amount of time that it takes to make one circuit of the sun. Radiant Garden's year is 371 days, for example, while the Destiny Islands, since they are closer to the sun and as such have a smaller orbit, have a year that is 364 days."

"That's not much difference."

"No, it isn't, but it is important here. All of the worlds have a year between 360 and 389 days in length, and you will need to know the length of each world's year to help you navigate between them."

"ALL of them?"

Xehanort's mouth twitched. "Well, not exactly all of them, but the ones you visit frequently, at least, as well as the ones close to them. The rest will just fall into place once you've got the hang of doing the math."

Lea made a sour face. "Math?"

Xehanort laughed. "Yes, Lea, math. I assure you though, that once you've done it enough, you won't even realize you're calculating things. You'll just think 'I'm on this world, and I want to go to this other world.' and you'll know how far you have to go and how to get there. The Lanes Between make this so much faster. Without them, travel times would be ridiculously long."

"How far do the Lanes go?"

"To all of the worlds that form this ring below us." Xehanort flew over to hover in front of Lea, and he looked him straight in the eye. "Do not ever attempt to go outside of the Lanes, Lea. Their magic allows us to breathe and keeps us warm, but outside of them is a cold, airless void, which will quickly kill any fool stupid enough to cross into it."

"How do you know it's there?"

"Because Master Limahl showed me, just as I am about to show you." Xehanort flapped his glider wings and rose up above Lea. "Follow me, _carefully_. Do not attempt to get above me." He hovered there for a moment, looking down to meet Lea's eyes. "I mean it, Lea. Disobey me here, and it could get you killed. Stay. Below. Me."

Lea nodded. "Got it."

Xehanort flapped his wings and rose up, and after a second, Lea slowly followed him. They went up a decent height, whereupon Xehanort paused, which prompted Lea to stop beside him. He then took his hands off the handles of the glider and rubbed his coat covered arms for a second.

"The first thing you will notice," Xehanort explained, "is that it will start getting colder. The reason for this is because the magic of the Lanes is thinning, so it warms you less as you near the edge." Xehanort gave his wings a flap and rose up even higher. Lea watched him and then followed.

When they paused next, Lea was glad for his coat and gloves, as his breath puffed out in front of him.

"The next warning that you're nearing the edge," Xehanort said, "is that the swirling colors that fill the Lanes and the Other Sky will begin to fade." He gestured to the space around them, and Lea blinked. He hadn't even been paying attention. A quick look around confirmed Xehanort's words – the bright colors were noticeably dimmer. He looked back at Xehanort, who went higher before stopping again. Once Lea had joined him, he continued his explanations.

"This is as close as I dare take you for now." he said. "The breathable air thins as you move upward – or if you're below the worlds, downward – but it still continues for a bit above us. Since I do not know how well you would tolerate lower oxygen environments, I don't dare take you higher. I wouldn't want you to pass out and fall off of your glider." He looked up. "If we did go higher, eventually you would reach the absolute limit of the Lanes themselves. Outside of them is the airless void of empty space."

"And the Lanes don't extend to anywhere but the known worlds?" Lea asked as he looked around. Strange, with the thinner colors, he thought he could see something beyond the Lanes.

"No."

Lea leaned forward on his glider and allowed his heart to try and see what his eyes couldn't make out. "Then why do I see what looks like three hearts out there?"

"Ah, I was wondering if you would spot those."

"What _are_ they?"

Xehanort turned around to look. "Worlds." he said. "Three other worlds. Ones with life evidently, otherwise they would have no hearts of their own."

Lea sat back on his glider and gave Xehanort a strange look. "If there are worlds with hearts out there, why don't the Lanes Between extend out to them? And what kind of worlds are they?"

Xehanort shrugged. "No one else knows. Now, let's go back down. I have other things to show you before we head to our next destination."

Xehanort dropped back down, and Lea looked back at the three hearts, glittering off in the distance, before he slowly followed.

"What else are you going to show me?" he asked once they were back in their previous spot, looking down at the worlds spinning gently below them. He idly followed the visible part of the worlds' orbits as they curved off into the distance and out of sight behind the su -

"The sun has a heart!" he blurted as he stared at it.

Xehanort quickly slapped his hand down over Lea's eyes while simultaneously casting a Cura spell. "Hey, I can't see! What's the big idea?"

Xehanort said nothing, and Lea felt him grab his glider and wrench it to face away from the sun, and only then did he drop his hand. Lea blinked as his eyes quickly focused on Xehanort's annoyed gaze.

"What the hell was that for?"

"That was me saving your eyesight." Xehanort said in a stern voice. "Never look directly at the sun, especially out here. Even on the worlds, where you have thick atmospheres to shield you from some of its more dangerous rays, looking directly at it is dangerous. Out here that protection is lessened. You would have done serious damage to your retinas in mere seconds if I hadn't turned you away."

"But I thought I saw..." Lea glanced back in the direction of the sun.

"Lea! What did I just say!"

Lea whipped his head back to look at Xehanort. "It's not there now. I could have sworn I saw a heart in the sun."

"Of course not. The sun itself has no life, and therefore, it cannot have a heart." Xehanort pointed back down at the worlds. "Now pay attention. I have more to teach you."

Lea followed Xehanort's pointing hand with his eyes. "Okay, what then?"

"Though they don't look like it, the worlds are sectioned into groups of three."

Lea looked through the scattered worlds below them. "I don't see any divisions."

He wasn't looking at Xehanort, but he could almost hear the eye roll. "I just said they don't look like it, so no, no clear divisions are visible, except for the one Lassierra creates as it passes by."

Lea did look up at Xehanort then. "Lassierra?"

"The largest moon, one that orbits no world on its own. Technically, because of that fact, it cannot be classed as a moon, but civilizations on all the worlds have been calling it that for centuries." Xehanort watched the worlds carefully for a second, and then he pointed again. "There it is."

Lea followed the direction of Xehanort's point again, until he spotted the large rock, weaving between the worlds as though it was guided by invisible hands. "How does it move like that?" he asked as he watched it.

"It drives the astronomers on the various worlds mad, trying to figure that out." Xehanort replied, and Lea could hear the humor in his voice. "Some say it's the guiding hand of the goddess Lassierra herself that controls the moon."

"Who is that?"

"Ah, yes, I'd forgotten you wouldn't know that name."

"Sora and Riku have mentioned it once or twice, I think."

"Lassierra is the name that those on the Destiny Islands have given the moon, and the goddess that controls it. On Meadowseele, the pair are known as Cām̐da, and on Radiant Garden, their name is Mōna."

Lea sat back on his glider. "Didn't we learn about her in school?"

"Yes, I believe worship of the old gods is covered during a chapter of the history book. Mōna, her husband Sunne, and their sons, Brim and Erda." Xehanort shook his head. "Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Before the Keyblade War, the large, single world that existed then got its seasons due to axial tilt. The world leaned sideways, and it was that sideways tilt in regards to its position around the sun that gave it its seasons."

"How do you know that? That war was thousands of years ago."

Xehanort waved that off. "I have my ways. Now, moving on.

"With the worlds now being so small, axial tilt serves really no function. The fragments are too small for a tilt to really affect their weather patterns. Now it is purely distance from the sun that controls that. So worlds like the Destiny Islands are close to it year round, so they have a constant summer. Radiant Garden has a more elliptical orbit, and it's further away from the sun during part of that, so it has seasons. During the winter its orbit carries it further from the sun, allowing it to cool off."

Lea cast his eyes over the worlds. "What about the ones even further out? Are there worlds even closer in?" He looked at Xehanort.

Xehanort nodded. "There are a few worlds that are closer in. Only one of those has life, and none of that life is human. I assume that there were either never any humans there to begin with, or that they died off after the world shattered into pieces."

"No records?"

"None."

"What about gods to ask?"

"Only one, and he's not open to such questions. Now, as for worlds further out, there are a several. That one right there -" Xehanort pointed to one massive world that shone brilliantly. "- is called Arendelle. The name was originally the name of one of the kingdoms on that world, but at some point, it became the name of the world itself as well. It has short, mild summers, and long, frigid winters. The Land of Departure, while not as cold as Arendelle, is similar: short, mild summer, long, cold winter. It took me a few years to get used to that when Master Limahl brought me home all those years ago."

Xehanort turned around so his back was to the sun and gestured for Lea to do the same. "There are world further out that are even colder as a result. Some have no human life on them as a result. One world that does still have a human population is Prydain. It is one of the worlds that I mentioned that has a collective hygiene issue due to a lack of clean water. It also is hostile to magic of any kind after a lich rained hell down on the world while trying to take over it."

"What is a lich?"

"You are familiar with zombies, I take it?"

"Yeah."

"A lich is a zombie that has retained its mind. They almost always come about by a human delving into the darkest magic possible in an attempt to cheat death, and as a result they break the very laws of the universe simply by existing, rather like how a Nobody does the same. Liches exist in the gray area between life and death, and they are very dangerous opponents. Like all undead creatures, however, they are weak to fire and light magic, and the light of the sun will incinerate them instantly."

"Have you ever encountered one?"

"I did once, on Tia's Dalma's world. Idiot thought that grabbing Ventus would be a good idea. I taught him the folly of that idea rather quick."

"What did you do?"

"Once I'd safely retrieved Ventus, I cornered the fool in his crumbling ruin of a mansion and let loose my miniature sun spell. I then portaled Ventus and myself a safe distance away before the resulting explosion vaporized the lich and his home instantly. I was lectured quite harshly for doing that initially, until I was able to tell why I'd done it. There was no problem after that."

"Mini sun spell?"

"Yes, and no, you can't use it. I can tell you now that you will never be able to cast that, and even if you could, I would never teach you. I was forbidden from using it ever again."

Lea huffed and crossed his arms. "That is so not fair."

"Stop sulking, Lea. When one of the gods tells you to never do that again, disobeying would be a very idiotic thing to do." Xehanort turned back around, and Lea glared at him for a second before doing the same.

"So when you're traveling between worlds," Xehanort said, going back to the original subject, "you must also take into account the season on that world. Going from a world in the height of summer to one in the dead of winter without making adjustments to your clothing can be deadly. If you ever make that mistake, just leave. It is not worth your life to try and deal with it."

Lea uncrossed his arms. "How do you keep track of all of this?"

"Years of practice. I left the Land of Departure two days after passing my Mark of Mastery, and I lived on the road for over 40 years after that."

"Did you ever go back? To the Land of Departure, I mean."

"I visited every year or two while Master Limahl lived. Once he had passed, I didn't come by again until I dumped Ventus on Master Eraqus' lap. Our only other communications before then were the occasional letter." Xehanort began to slowly descend towards the worlds, and Lea followed him. "I left the day after we buried Master Limahl and never looked back."

"So now what?" Lea asked once they were back among the scattered worlds. "Where are we going from here?"

"That depends." Xehanort cast a look around the worlds nearest to them. "Isa is not the only one we have to find. Braig is out here somewhere, and he also has to be freed. I have a feeling that we'll probably find him before we find Isa."

"You can track him though, right, like you can Isa?"

"I can, yes, but he can also track _me_ , and unlike Isa, he has his free will still, so he can move to stay ahead of us."

"Why in the fuck would he do that?" Lea looked at Xehanort incredulously. "That makes no damned sense!"

"Because Braig enjoys the power that being one of my vessels grants him. From what I learned about him during my time in Radiant Garden, he always wanted power but wasn't willing to do the work to get it honestly. So when I came along and offered to share power in exchange for him housing a fragment of my heart, he couldn't wait to agree."

"And you told him, just what the end result would be?"

Xehanort nodded. "Enough that he knew what he was getting into, and he was a willing participant in all of my schemes. Even as his eye turned golden and his hair started to turn white, he had no second thoughts or considerations of backing out."

Lea shook his head. "I just can't... why would anyone be willing to do such a crazy ass thing?"

"Some people are just hungry for power, and will do whatev -"

Xehanort stopped in mid-sentence and whipped his head up to stare off to his left.

"What is it?" Lea asked, but the Keyblade Master did not answer. "What do -?" Xehanort held up his hand, and Lea went silent.

After a moment, Xehanort turned to look at him. "Down. Go down. Now."

Lea blinked in confusion. "What?"

Xehanort reached out, grabbed him by his arm, and began to pull him downward. "Get down here, Lea. Right now."

"Alright, alright."

"And keep quiet!" Xehanort hissed as they descended down towards the bottom of the Lanes.

Lea glared at him, but he kept the biting comment that bubbled up behind his teeth as they dropped down until the colors began to fade. He gave Xehanort a questioning look as they hovered, but Xehanort kept his eyes fixed upon the spot they had just left and did not say anything.

It was then that Lea finally realized what Xehanort had already spotted. Two hearts were slowly making their way through the Lanes, passing very close to where they had just been. As they neared, Lea was able to make out the shape of the owners of those hearts and hear their voices.

"I don't know why Beldinas made us come all the way out here." said a woman's voice in a whiny, nasally tone. Lea's eyes widened as he stared at Xehanort. Xehanort kept his own gaze fixed on the two figures moving above them.

"You know why, Iria." said a second woman's voice, with an air of someone who has repeated themselves several times already. "Master Beldinas heard that one of Master Xehanort's other vessels could be out this way. If there's the slightest possibility of us grabbing another one, we need to investigate."

"And why do you call Xehanort "Master" but not me!" Iria whined. "I'm a Keyblade Master too!"

"Because you're a brat!" the other woman snapped. "You do nothing but whine nonstop! But Master Xehanort.." Her voice softened. "He's so _dreamy_ , you know. With that gorgeous body, and those eyes."

Lea covered his mouth to hide the snicker that wanted to come out at the disgusted look on Xehanort's face.

"He's also a creepy old man!" Iria whined, and Lea cringed at the sound of it. "Your crush on him is so annoying!"

"He's not an old man anymore!" the other protested. "Have you seen him lately! He's so beautiful, and I would love to have a piece of him."

Xehanort's face took on a green tinge, and Lea had to stuff his fist in his mouth to muffle his laughter, but Iria's next words snuffed out his amusement quickly.

"You're an idiot if you think that he's going to indulge you if you ever encounter him." Iria snarled, and Lea was relieved to hear no trace of her earlier whine. "If Master Beldinas finds out that you're entertaining such thoughts, he'll make you babysit Xehanort's vessel around the clock."

"Good thing he's not going to find out then, since you're not going to tell him."

"I might, if you don't stop talking about how dreamy Xehanort is."

"I would really like to know how a brat such as you managed to get a place on the Council." The two women's voices began to fade as they moved away, and Xehanort signaled to Lea before beginning to slowly follow them, still skirting the lower limits of the Lanes Between.

"I earned my place just as you did!" Iria's whine returned, and Lea cringed again.

"Only because your master died less than a week after you passed your exam."

"And so did yours. What is your point?"

Lea couldn't help the relieved sigh that escaped him when the two women moved far enough ahead that he could no longer clearly work out their words.

"These are the people that have Isa?" he asked Xehanort in a whisper.

Xehanort nodded. "Believe it or not. Airheaded personalities aside, they are still Keyblade Masters, so you should always take them seriously. Now, let's see where they are going."

"Why? You can't track Braig, can't you? So why would you need to follow someone to him?"

"Because I need information, that is why, and those two are the lowest on the Council's totem pole, so they are likely the weakest of them all."

"So what, are you going to grab them, tie them to a chair, and just interrogate them?"

"If that's what it comes to, yes."

"That's pretty nasty of you."

Xehanort gave him a chiding look. "It's also completely necessary. The more information we have, the better our chances of finding Isa."

"But what about after you've dragged all the useful info out of them. What then?"

"What do you think?" Xehanort looked at him with a blank expression for a moment, and Lea paused and stared back as the implications sank in. Xehanort then looked away and continued following the two women. Lea stared after him, swallowed heavily, and then followed.

No more was said between them as they carefully followed the women at a distance.

"Of course," Xehanort huffed after several minutes had passed, "they're going to Arendelle."

"One of the worlds you just mentioned?"

"Yes, indeed. Thankfully the world is currently in mid-spring, so while it will be cold, it won't be frozen there." Xehanort chuckled to himself, as though he'd just told a joke, and Lea gave him a sideways look as the women exited the Lanes Between.

"So, now what?" Lea asked.

Xehanort fluttered back a bit. "Now we give them a few minutes and then follow. We don't want to exit the Lanes right after they do, or they might notice us."

"But how will we know where they went?"

Xehanort snorted. "I'll be able to see their hearts. Since they are chosen by the keyblade, that will be plainly visible.

"How will you prevent them from seeing us?"

"By being careful and avoiding their notice. They passed right over us just a minute ago without even noticing that there we were there. I intend to repeat that."

"You seem pretty damned sure of yourself."

Xehanort merely nodded, while watching the world that the two women had gone through to, humming quietly to himself. Having nothing else to do, Lea sat there next to him and waited, while idly wondering the name of the song that Xehanort was humming. Well, he certainly wasn't going to ask.

"Alright then." Xehanort said once a few minutes had passed. "Before we go in, let me make one thing clear. If I tell you to duck down and hide, you WILL do so."

Lea looked at him. "What? Why?"

"Remember that Lord Ansem is spreading a story that you went off on your own to find Isa. The longer we can keep your apprenticeship under me a secret, the better. So if there is a chance that your presence could be discovered, I want you to hide out of sight. Am I clear?"

"Yeah, sure." Xehanort gave him a hard look, and Lea resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yes, Master Xehanort."

"Good." Xehanort nodded. "Let's go."

A portal out of the Lanes appeared in front of them. "Stay right behind me." Xehanort ordered just before he flew through. Lea rolled his eyes again and followed.

The cold on the other side nearly took his breath away, and he instinctively let go of his glider and folded his arms across his chest. It was night on the world, and the light of the other worlds glowed in the dark sky. All around was nothing but snow and ice, and the wind howled through the bare trees.

"Come on, Lea." Xehanort said from just ahead. "It will be warmer closer to the ground."

"I thought you said the place wouldn't be frozen!" Lea yelled over the wind as they descended.

Xehanort smiled as they came to hover just above the snow covered ground, and he gestured for Lea to follow without saying a word.

"What the hell is he smiling about?" Lea grumbled to himself as they skimmed over the ground, heading for the skyglow that could be seen in the distance. They skimmed along a downhill slope, until they came to a ridge, whereupon Xehanort stopped.

"What now?" Lea asked as he came alongside them. Without a word, Xehanort simply pointed. Lea turned and looked at where he was pointing.

Below them was a castle town, spread out in a valley floor and built partially over the water. The city lights glittered in the clear air, sparkling like jewels.

"Oh wow, that's pretty." Lea said.

"The city of Balestrand." Xehanort said. "Arendelle's capital city. There are a couple of villages and smaller towns scattered about, but most of this side of the world is uninhabited. Chances are, if Braig is frequenting this world, this has a good chance of being where's he's going."

"Soooo that means that's also where Iria and Whatshername went?"

"Indeed. Follow me."

Xehanort flew over the cliff and began to descend down the face of it. Lea quickly followed -

\- and promptly slammed his eyes shut. Damn, the cliff was _steep!_ It was nearly a straight vertical drop to the valley floor hundreds of feet below. The wind screamed in his ears as it rushed past, and his stomach flip-flopped at the sensation of falling.

"Lea!"

Xehanort's voice caused his eyes to snap open, and he yanked back on his handlebars, stopping his rapid descent as the valley floor loomed much closer than he had thought.

"Do not _ever_ do that again." Xehanort said, and though Lea couldn't tell with the low lighting, he thought the Keyblade Master's face was a little paler than normal, his eyes a little wider. "I thought for damned sure that I was going to have to scrape you off of the rocks. Eyes open at all times when you're on your glider."

Lea nodded. "Yeah," he said in agreement, and tried to ignore how his voice came out a little squeaky.

Xehanort looked at him for a little while longer, and then he flew off, skimming just above the snow, towards the distant city. Lea waited until his heart had slowed down before following.

They skimmed over the ground, flying low "to avoid detection" as Xehanort said, until they reached the harbor. They landed in a darkened, deserted section on a pier that appeared as though it was seldom used, if its dilapidated condition was any indication, and dismissed their gliders.

"As long as we are here, we are to to avoid calling attention to ourselves at all costs." Xehanort said in a low voice as they walked towards the city proper, with the old pier creaking and popping alarmingly with every step they took. "Queen Elsa is a powerful wielder of ice magic; she makes Even look like a traveling charlatan by comparison."

"How does she compare to you?"

"She is less powerful than me, for certain, but she could still make things difficult for me if she chose to. She is also friends with Sora, so I've no doubt she's been warned about me."

"How do you know that?"

Xehanort took an abrupt left turn and went down a section of the docks that looked even worse than than the part that they had landed on. "I have eyes in the sky that let me know things that they deem important."

Lea stepped forward, but the spongy wood groaned loudly. He snatched his foot back and stopped as Xehanort continued forward.

"Eyes in the sky?" he said in a dry tone. "Really?"

"Really." Xehanort replied. "Now just stay there."

"I intend to."

Xehanort picked his way across the rotting boards, while Lea stood and watched, wondering if he was going to get to see Xehanort end up in the drink. He couldn't help the little "Aww," of disappointment when Xehanort made it to the end without it happening.

"I heard that, Lea."

Lea grinned, but that grin slowly faded from his face when Xehanort stopped at the end of the dock and looked down at the dark water. What was he doing? The water rippled, rolled, swirled, bubbled, and then a column of it rose from the surface, carrying a large chest. Lea felt his jaw fall open as the chest was gently deposited on the rickety pier, and then the water retreated, leading the surface of the bay smooth and undisturbed.

Xehanort summoned No Name and tapped the chest to open it. He then knelt down in front of it, gathered up what looked like a large bundle of cloth, kicked the lid closed, and then shoved it back into the water.

"How in the hell did you do that?" Lea demanded as Xehanort made his way back.

Xehanort perked one eyebrow. "Magic." he said simply.

Lea ground his teeth together. "How informative."

"It's the truth. I used magic. Why is that a problem?"

"Demyx could never do that."

"Demyx never _tried_ , and he acquired his water magic via breaking the laws of the universe. I came by mine by flesh and blood. Therein lies the difference." He reached into the bundle of cloth and handled part of it to Lea. "Here, take your coat off and put that on."

Lea accepted the wad of scratchy fabric. "What? But I'll freeze!"

"No, you won't, not if you do what I tell you."

"But I need that coat!"

Xehanort glared at him. "Lea! Do as you are told!" His voice snapped in the cold air. Lea glared back at him, and then he looked away in defeat when the gold of Xehanort's eyes began to glow.

"Fine." he growled as his hand moved to the zipper of his coat. He unzipped it and let it drop from his shoulders to the dock, and he felt his skin break out in goosebumps as the frigid air brushed across it. He quickly stuffed his arms into the heavy woolen shirt and pulled it over his head, and Xehanort handed him something else. This turned out to be a sleeveless top of some kind, also made from heavy wool, and it was followed by a thick hat, and a pair of heavy gloves. Lastly came a hooded cloak, and once Lea had draped it over his shoulders and fastened the clasp at the front, he tugged it tighter around him and shivered as Xehanort shucked his own coat in favor of more winter clothing.

"Why are we dressing like this?" Lea said between chattering teeth as his breath puffed out in front of him.

Xehanort dressed himself far quicker than Lea had. "To better blend in. I'm certain that Queen Elsa knows of our distinctive black coats, so it would be best to avoid wearing them on this world." Xehanort pulled a green cloak around his shoulders and pulled the hood up. "It will also help me hide better. Your hair and eye colors are common here; mine are not." He rolled up his coat and stashed it under a pile of boards nearby, and a glance at Lea prompted him to hurriedly do the same. Xehanort nodded at him, and then he turned and resumed walking towards the city proper.

"Are we going to stop somewhere and get something to eat?" Lea asked as he hurried to catch up. "It's been a while since we ate last."

"We will." Xehanort said with a nod. "As a matter of fact, the local inn and tavern will be our first stop, barring something unexpected. In worlds where there are no forms of instant communication, taverns and inns are your places to go to learn things. People will talk about anything, especially when they are drunk."

"What do you mean by 'something unexpected'?"

"Well, if our two council members are already there, we won't be going in. All trained keyblade wielders can see each other, by the mark the keyblade makes on our hearts. If we get too close to them, they will assuredly notice us, and we want to avoid that."

"So... can you see them?"

"Not yet. I'm certain that they are here, but they aren't close enough to me to be visible."

They passed under a tall stone archway that went through the city wall, and Lea sighed as the wall cut out the stiff breeze coming off the water. "What does the mark look like? Is it, like a keyhole or something on the heart? And when will you teach me to see it?"

Xehanort chuckled. "Much simpler than that, and it's not something that can be taught, per se. The heart of a keyblade wielder seems to have an extra glow around it, even a heart consumed by darkness seems brighter to those who know what to look for. I can tell you what to look at, but you have to train yourself to find it by practicing. I imagine that you'll spend quite a lot of your free time staring at my heart and at your own. Believe me, I spent hours staring at Master Limahl's heart as a boy."

"A glow? Why a glow?"

"It is the light of the keyblade itself, and the stronger your bond with your keyblade, the brighter the glow." Xehanort looked around as they stepped into the city proper. "No more talk of keyblades now. We don't know who might be listening."

"You'll explain more later though, right?"

"Of course. Now, follow me and keep your ears open."

Despite the apparent late hour, the streets, which were strangely clear of snow and ice, were full of people. Lights filled the spaces between the buildings with a warm glow, the area was filled with the chatter of voices, lights shone behind frosted windows, and a light mix of rain and snow swirled down from the sky above.

"Why are people out so late?" Lea wondered as they proceeded straight down the street towards the center of town.

"It's not as late as you think." Xehanort replied. "I'll explain why later. Now, keep quiet; I need to concentrate."

Lea huffed and pulled his cloak tighter around himself but kept quiet as he'd been told.

"So far, I don't see our two council members." Xehanort said in a side whisper after a few minutes. "There's the possibility that they went up to the castle proper to speak to Queen Elsa and might come back into town later."

"So what are we going to do?"

"We're going to get that meal that I promised you, and then we'll go from there." Xehanort guided him to the right and off the road, to a two story building. He pushed open the heavy door, which hung from heavy, iron strap hinges. A wave of heat, carrying the babble of voices and the scents of cooking food and wood smoke, rolled out to greet them as Xehanort ushered Lea inside.

Inside was a large room, with a stone floor, plaster walls, and a heavily timbered ceiling. A large fireplace on the left wall crackled with a roaring fire, and several heavy wooden tables were scattered about the space, filled with people eating, drinking, and talking. A few candles hanging from supporting pillars and sitting on tables provided a dim glow.

A tall woman, with hair redder than Lea's, and wearing a white dress, with a black vest like top that had a squared off neckline, rushed up to meet them, and she and Xehanort exchanged a few sentences in a language that to Lea's ears sounded like English being spoken backwards. That reminded him, he thought as they were led to a table in a darker corner away from the fireplace, he needed to ask Xehanort about languages and why Tia Dalma's accent had gotten easier for him the more he'd listened to her.

Once they were seated, Xehanort spoke more to the woman, and then she scurried off. She came back only a few minutes later and plopped down a couple of mugs of steaming coffee, and then she went off again.

"If you want, you may take your cloak off and drape it over the back of your chair." Xehanort said quietly, leaving over the table so Lea could hear him better. "I need to keep mine on for reasons I've already explained."

Lea lifted his mug and took a sip of the coffee before making a face. It was black, no cream or sugar, but at least it was a hot drink, so he forced himself to ignore the taste and kept sipping at it.

"What language were you speaking just now?" he asked once the heat of the drink warmed him enough that he could shuck the cloak and gloves.

"Norwegian." Xehanort replied as he scanned the room.

"It sounded like you were speaking English backwards."

Xehanort laughed quietly. "It does, doesn't it? I told Master Limahl the exact same thing when I heard it for the first time. He then admitted that he'd also said the same to Master Alexia."

Lea flicked his gaze over the crowded room. "Is it okay to talk here about...things?"

"As long as you keep your voice down and be quiet if I tell you to, then yes."

Lea leaned over the table. "Could you explain how we learn languages then? I noticed that when you were talking with Tia Dalma, I could barely understand her at first."

"But the more you listened, the easier it became?" Xehanort said with a knowing look.

"Yeah, exactly. So how does that work?"

"You are going to hate this, but honestly? Listening with your heart."

Lea nearly spat out the mouthful of coffee he'd just taken, and he gave Xehanort a sour look. "Really? That can't be it."

"It is. Your keyblade causes you to allow things you normally wouldn't be able to do. Learning languages at a rapid pace is one of them." Xehanort took a drink of his own coffee, and then he set the mug back on the table. "There are a couple of things that make the process even faster."

"Really? Like what?"

"Immersion helps. If I were to speak nothing but Norwegian to you for a few weeks, you would start picking up words within minutes, phrases and sentences within hours. Within a month or two you would be able to ask for directions, order a meal, and carry on very simple conversations. Within a couple of years, if you'd practiced enough, you would sound just like a native speaker."

"I could learn that fast!" Lea said in an excited whisper, and Xehanort smiled faintly at him.

"Yes, if you practiced."

"So what's the other thing that helps?"

"It's important to remember that all of the shattered worlds used to be part of a much larger whole, and the languages formed during that time. So many of them are related in various ways."

Lea rested his arms on the table and his head on the backs of his hands. "Got an example?"

"I do. This is the second largest world out of all of them. Because of that, it has a few separate kingdoms scattered across it. One of them is the kingdom of Corona. The language that they speak is called German, and when you first hear it, you'll no doubt think it very harsh and guttural sounding, which is true enough. But, the English that you and I are speaking is related to it, and you will notice that if you pay attention. The two languages do have much in common as a result of that relation, and that will allow you to learn German even faster than Norwegian."

"That is so cool."

"The languages have changed over time, of course, as they are wont to do, but you'll be amazed at how many words in other languages that you will recognize."

"How many languages can you speak?"

"Several, including: Santili, Norwegian, German, Danish, Greek, French, Italian, Creole, Chinese, and Spanish. There are a few others, plus some that I only have a basic grasp of, because I rarely use them."

"What about your native language? Sora said that you're from the Destiny Islands."

Xehanort's expression changed suddenly; it was like something had slammed shut behind his eyes. "I've long since forgotten my first language, and I've no desire to relearn it." His tone of voice was almost completely flat, and Lea nearly shivered at the sound of it.

Xehanort said nothing else, and Lea looked away from him as the conversation abruptly withered and died.

The red headed woman reappeared then, and she plonked down two large plates piled high with sizzling sausages, along with potatoes, peas, and gravy.

"What is this?" Lea asked as he looked down at it. The smell of the meat filled his nose, and his stomach rumbled in anticipation.

" _Stekte pølser,_ " Xehanort replied. "Literally 'fried sausages'. It's a common dish here and one well suited to warming up in this weather."

Lea speared a sausage with his fork and bit into it, and he nearly moaned as the flavor of the meat exploded in his mouth. Xehanort smiled, watching him, and then he turned his attention to his own meal.

Lea cleared his plate in short order, and he leaned back in his chair, with his stomach pleasantly full, and drank down more of his coffee. "Mmm, that was good. Can we come back sometime and get that again?"

"We can try, but I'll make no promises. It all depends on where this hunt takes us."

"You sound like we're chasing after an animal."

"In a way, we are. Finding Isa requires finding the Council, and they know that I'm chasing after them."

"Don't they have anything else better to do?"

"Apparently not."

The waitress appeared to clear the plates away and refresh their coffee, and once she had stepped away, Lea took a glance around the still busy room and then learned over the table towards Xehanort.

"So why are we seated all the way back here, in the darkest part of the room?'

One side of Xehanort's mouth curled up in a half smile. "There is that intelligence that I knew you possess. The reason is simple; we can see the entire room, while everyone else will have a hard time seeing us. This will make it easier for us to sit back and listen without being noticed all that much, if at all."

"Make it easier for _you_ to sit back and listen, you mean. I still can't understand a word of anything here."

"Then now would be a good time to start working on that, as well as being able to see the light of a keyblade wielder's heart. I will keep an eye out for our quarry and listen for any news of Braig passing through here."

Lea nodded, and then he hesitated. "Uhh, how exactly does one 'listen with their heart' exactly?"

Xehanort chuckled. "Just listen with an open heart and pay attention, like you did at Tia Dalma's. Having your heart sight up to look at hearts while you listen will help."

"Right."

Xehanort leaned back in his chair, looking for all the world like a man relaxing after an excellent meal, but Lea could see his eyes glittering under the hood of his cloak.

Lea turned sideways to sit in his own chair to better look over the room, took a deep breath, and allowed his heart's sight to come up, grateful that Master Yen Sid had at least taught him that much. The dining room, the rooms around it, and the immediate area around the inn lit up with shining hearts. Beyond that, he could see other hearts as bright points of light, but they were too distant to make out any details other than their basic shape.

"Can you extend the range of your sight, by chance?" he asked without taking his gaze from the roomful of hearts in front of him.

"Yes," Xehanort said from his right, "by looking. The more you look, the better you will be at making out things from a distance. Your range is only limited by the acuity of your eyesight."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense."

He looked over the hearts in front of him. Most seemed similar to each other. Some were darker than others, some had the telltale smoke-like appearance of Darkness wrapped around them, while some were so bright they were almost painful to look at. A quick glance at his own heart was what he expected: light and darkness together, but not mixing freely as they did in Riku's heart. The Darkness had faded a bit more since he'd last checked, since he refrained from using it these days.

Xehanort's heart on the other hand...

Xehanort's heart was a seething mass of Darkness that boiled and rolled as Lea watched it. The bands of Darkness seemed to writhe and move like a mass of angry snakes, while only allowing the briefest glimpse of a faint light every now and then. That was... That was just _insane_. How could someone be sitting there so calmly with a heart so consumed? How had it not collapsed and imploded by now?

And where was this glow that was supposed to be there? Other than that brief flicker, Lea couldn't see anything even resembling a glow in Xehanort's heart.

"Do you see it?" Xehanort asked suddenly.

"Not in your heart."

"Then try your own instead. Look at yours, and then compare it to those around us. Don't forget to listen while you're looking."

"Right,"

He looked back at his own heart for a long moment, trying to memorize the sight of the bright light, loosely wrapped in Darkness, before he looked back up at the increasingly crowded dining room. As he looked, he let the babble of conversation flow over him.

" _Det ser ut som en..."_

" _...kone er fortsatt sint på..."_

" _Anders har to tenner!"_

" _Mer kaffe!"_

The hearts of the other people in the tavern were certainly brighter than his, but since he'd spent several years using Darkness, that was no surprise. It didn't bring him any closer to seeing what Xehanort had described.

" … _ikke vente til sommeren..._ " bellowed a large man at a nearby table, and Lea jumped as his voice boomed around the room.

" _Har du hørt noen planer_ for the queen's _bursdagsfest?_ "

Lea bolted upright as the English words seemed to jump out at him. "I heard that!" he said excitedly as he looked over at Xehanort.

Xehanort nodded and smiled. "You actually heard the Norwegian, but your heart allowed your brain to quickly translate it for you, without you having to think about it. You're doing very well so far, so keep listening."

" _Kjøp meg en annen_ drink!"

Lea felt his smile widen as another word slipped through the chatter. "It's working! It's happening!"

"Good, now quiet down, before you call attention to us."

Lea slumped down in his chair a bit. "Oh yeah, right." he said in a sheepish tone, but the smile on his face refused to budge. "Sorry."

"No need to apologize. You're learning something new, and it understandably has you excited. Just be aware of where we are and why we're here."

Lea sat back to lean against the wall and let the conversation fill his ears again. Immediately more words started coming to him, and his face began to ache from the smile.

" ... _kjøpe_ that horse _fra den gamle mannen_..."

" _Jeg må slutte å_ drinking."

" _Så du_ the fools _som gikk gjennom byen tidligere?_ "

" _De forsøkte ikke engang_ to get dressed for weather, _fra utseendet av det_."

"Demanding _å see_ the queen, _som_ _om de var_ the bosses of her!"

" _Å vifte deres_ giant keys _rundt slik, er ment å bety noe for oss!_ "

Lea's head snapped around to look at Xehanort, who looked back at him from the shadows of his hood.

"Yes, you heard that right." Xehanort said quietly. "It looks like our two idiots made no attempt to blend in and at least tried to use their keyblades in their demand to see Queen Elsa."

"Is she in danger? Should we go help?"

"We are going to at least go and look." Xehanort stood up and laid some munny on the table. "Put your cloak and gloves on; we are leaving right now."

Lea nearly knocked his chair over as he stood, and he whipped his cloak on and pulled the hood up as Xehanort began to walk across the now packed dining room towards the door. Lea hurried to follow him, and the cold blast of air that met him when Xehanort opened the door was an unwelcome reminder that the world was still not free of winter's icy grip.

Outside, the rain/snow mix had turned into just snow, and more people were out and about. Xehanort kept up a brisk clip as they moved down the street, and even with his longer legs, Lea had to make sure to keep the green of his cloak in sight at all times, so he wouldn't lose sight of him. How did that man move so fast?

So focused on the green of the cloak, Lea didn't realize that Xehanort had stopped until he nearly walked into him.

"What-?" he began, but he stopped before he could ask the question when Xehanort simply vanished from in front of him. "Hey! Where did you go?" He then found himself abruptly yanked to the right, into the narrow space between two buildings.

"Don't make a sound." came Xehanort's voice, and Lea looked in that direction as his eyes slowly adjusted to the loss of the street lights. The shadows slowly receded to reveal Xehanort standing up against the wall of a building, and Lea turned to look back at the rectangle of light that looked out over the street they had just been on.

"The two council members are heading in this direction." Xehanort whispered. "If they aren't actively looking at hearts, they should pass by without seeing us."

"And if they do?"

"Then we jump into the Lanes before they see us and hope that they never figure out who the second heart belongs to. Now, shh, they're almost here."

Lea shuffled back until he was behind Xehanort, even as he berated himself for hiding behind him like a scared kid. The inner chastisement didn't move him from his spot behind Xehanort's left shoulder however.

"..wasn't impressed!" came a familiar whiny tone, and Lea nearly groaned at the sound of it. How did anyone stand listening to that woman talk?

"Will you stop whining already?" came the second woman's voice, and Lea grinned; nice to know he wasn't the only one annoyed.

"But we came out here for nothing!"

"We came out here to try and see if one of Master Xehanort's vessels was here. He's not here, and the queen has never seen him. We needed information and we got that. Now let's get some dinner and go home."

"Do we have to eat here? I hate the food here."

Lea imagined that he could almost hear the eyeroll. "Fine. _You_ go home and report to Beldinas. _I_ will get some dinner and then follow you later."

Two bright splashes of color walked right in front of their little hideaway, and then they paused. Lea felt his chest stop moving as the two women, dressed in hooded cloaks like the one he was wearing stood less than ten feet away from him and Xehanort.

Iria, a dark haired figure that looked far too young to have her Mark of Mastery, huffed. "You just don't want to report that we didn't find anything."

"I never said I did. You can wiggle out of reporting it by yourself, if you stay here while I eat."

"Eww, no. I'd rather listen to Beldinas complain about us not finding anything than be in the same room as the slop they call food here."

"Then you'd best leave soon."

Iria grumbled something before she stomped away. There was the sound of a keyblade being summoned, the Lanes Between opening, and then her heart vanished from sight.

"Finally," the other one huffed as the Lanes Between closed, and she turned towards the tavern that Lea and Xehanort had been in earlier.

"Yes, finally." Xehanort said quietly as he held out his hand. "Sleep." he whispered as he pointed at the bright yellow that was the woman's cloak, and she crumbled to the ground with the rustling of her clothing the only sound. "Stay here, Lea."

Xehanort darted forward, moving so fast that Lea didn't see him move, grabbed the sleeping woman, and dragged her into their hiding spot. He dragged her to her feet and held her upright as he looked at Lea.

"Follow me, Lea. Don't dawdle, don't ask questions, just follow me and do as I say."

"What are you going to do with her?"

"I am going to get some answers, answers that I'm sure you would like to hear as well."

Lea felt his stomach flip-flop at the implications. "Can't I stay here and wait for you?"

"No, because no doubt when Master Iria notices that her companion hasn't returned, she will come here looking for her and will inevitably spot you."

"You're not going to... do anything to her, are you?"

"No." Xehanort said shortly. "Now, follow me." He hoisted the woman up and draped her over his shoulder. "We don't have our coats, but this will be just a short trip, so you will be fine."

"What do you mean?"

In response a Dark Portal opened behind Xehanort. "Quickly, before someone notices."

Lea stared at the swirling portal, Mickey's warnings about using the Darkness running through his mind.

"Now, Lea!" Xehanort hissed. "A rare use on occasion will not hurt you. Now go, before we're discovered!"

"Fine, fine!" Lea looked at the woman draped over Xehanort's shoulder like a sank of potatoes, and then he took a deep breath and walked through the portal.


	7. Memories

**A/N:** Sorry **Castlevania!** folks. I've been a bit **Castlevania!** distracted lately and found it a bit hard to **Castlevania!** write for a bit. Hopefully this will **C-A-S-T-L-E-V-A-N-I-A!** be worth the wait.

 **A/N 2:** While I do know a bit about wilderness survival, and I always try to ensure that my facts are accurate, I am NOT a survival expert. Please, DO NOT take anything you read here as absolute truth. ALWAYS be absolutely certain about your facts before attempting to survive in the wild.

 **7.  
** **Memories**

Lea stayed back in far corner of the rectangular building, huddling in the shadows as much as possible. A large fire in the center of the one room space threw light and shadows flickering across the walls, thatched roof, floor, and the long benches that were built into the two longer walls.

Xehanort was standing between Lea and the fire, and the flames' light threw him into deep shadow, and Lea felt himself shiver at the sight. The Council member that Xehanort had grabbed was lying on one of the benches, still under Xehanort's magic. The same leather cuffs that Lea had once had on his wrists now encircled hers, and though Xehanort had made no move to harm her in any way, Lea still shifted uneasily from foot to foot as he waited to see what was going to happen next.

"Stay there." the silhouette that was Xehanort said in a firm tone that brooked no argument. "Don't say a word and don't move. I want her attention fully focused on me. Is that understood?"

Lea shifted again and didn't answer.

"Lea..." There was that warning in Xehanort's voice again, and Lea nodded without saying anything.

"Lea!" Xehanort's voice snapped on the chilly air, and Lea shivered again.

"Yes, Master Xehanort," he said quietly, "I understand."

Xehanort didn't respond to that; he simply moved over to the sleeping woman and held his hand out over her.

"Time to wake up." he said in a quiet voice that made Lea shiver once more. "Let's see if you know anything useful."

 _And if she doesn't?_ Lea almost said, but he stopped himself in time.

The woman began to stir, and then she slowly sat up as she reached up and rubbed at the side of her head.

"Ooooh, what happened?" she mumbled. "Where am I? I am going to kill Iria if that brat had something to do with this."

"Are you all right, my lady?" Xehanort asked, and Lea reared his head back and stared at him. Xehanort sounded as though he was at a formal event back on Radiant Garden, instead of in a little thatched roof longhouse in the middle of a snow covered forest.

"I think I am?" the woman said as she slowly raised her head to look at the person speaking to her. Lea saw her eyes widen when she realized who was standing there, and he also saw her cheeks flush. "Master Xehanort?" She averted her eyes as her blush deepened.

"Indeed, my dear." Xehanort said as he flashed her a wide smile. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage though. You know my name, but I do not know yours."

Somehow her blush reddened even further. "I am Master Astrid, my lord."

Xehanort sat beside her. "None of that, my dear. You are one of the Council, while I am merely a Seeker that travels the worlds. It doesn't feel right for me to be addressed in such a way."

"But you are so much more powerful than me!" Master Astrid protested as she looked up at Xehanort. "It feels wrong to not show proper respect."

Lea swallowed a groan and pressed himself further back into the shadows in the corner.

"Do not sell yourself short." Xehanort said as he carefully took one of her hands in his own, which caused her to blush again. "One does not get on the Council of the Keys without power."

She turned away from him bashfully, and Lea resisted the urge to facepalm. Did this idiot not realize the danger she was in?

"Why are you here, Master Xehanort?" she asked without looking at him.

The smile on Xehanort's face made Lea think of the look his mother's cat once wore just before it would pounce on an unsuspecting mouse. "I was merely concerned, my lady. After you fainted outside the tavern, I thought it best to bring you to a safe place while you recovered."

She reached up to touch the side of her head again. "Is that what happened? I don't really recall..." She pushed her reddish-blond hair back from her face and blinked her blue eyes at him. "You were there?"

"Indeed, I was. When I saw you fall, I felt that I had to step in and render assistance to such a beautiful lady as yourself."

She giggled – giggled! What was wrong with this woman? - and smiled at him. "Thank you, my lord."

"Ah, ah, what did I say about calling me that?" Xehanort said with a smile.

Master Astrid giggled again. "Thank you, Master Xehanort. Is there anything I can do to..." She leaned in closer to him, and Lea wished he could vanish through the wall. "... repay you?"

Lea had to swallow a gag when Xehanort reached up and lightly ran his fingers down Astrid's cheek. "Oh, I'm sure we can think of something."

Astrid fluttered her eyelashes at Xehanort, and Lea just turned away.

"I am curious though," Xehanort continued, speaking in a tone of voice that Lea had never heard him use before, "why was a lady such as yourself all the way out here? Surely there are better things to be doing?"

Lea couldn't see her, but he knew that Astrid was blushing again. "I am native to this world, so I wished to spent a little extra time here. It's rare that I get to come here."

"Does Master Beldinas not allow it? Surely someone of his age and wisdom would not seek to keep you confined?"

"Master Beldinas keeps Master Iria and I on tight leashes, since we're the youngest and least experienced. He wishes to keep us safe."

"Is that what he says? Did your master keep you under such restrictions as well?"

"No, Master Leland was a kind man that allowed me to go where I wished once I was old enough to travel safely, but..."

"But?" Xehanort prompted.

"But he unexpectedly died last year, and I answer to Master Beldinas now."

"So you went from having freedom to having a gilded cage?"

"It is to keep us safe, Master Xehanort."

"Safe from whom, my dear? And why? Is it not the Council's responsibility to keep the worlds safe? How would keeping two members confined so often help with that task?"

"I am not privy to Master Beldinas' reasons, Master Xehanort."

"Perhaps he hopes to keep such beauty away from others, that he might have you for himself."

"Master Beldinas wouldn't do that!"

"Wouldn't he? Does he already not have two lovers? Perhaps he wished to gain a third and a fourth by taking advantage of your loneliness, loneliness that he created by keeping you confined. Even Keyblade Masters need companionship, and despite our power, we are still human."

"But.." Astrid began, but Xehanort did not give her a chance to finish her sentence.

"There are four women on the Council after all. Perhaps he wishes all of you to visit his bed."

Astrid said nothing, and Lea looked over his shoulder to see her staring at the floor, brows furrowed in thought.

"It is an interesting coincidence, is it not?" Xehanort pressed. "You pass your Mark of Mastery, and within weeks your master dies, and the same befalls Master Iria's master. Those deaths put the two of you directly under Beldinas' authority, which he promptly starts using to force the two of you remain close to him. Does he do the same to Masters Aya and Chrysa? Of course not! Because he has already snared them, that is why."

As Lea watched, Astrid gnawed on her lower lip, not even questioning just how Xehanort had known about the timing surrounding Master Leland's death. Lea turned around to better see as her expression darkened. She muttered something to herself, which made Xehanort smile again. She looked up at him, and the smile vanished from Xehanort's face so quickly that Lea wondered if he'd imagined it being there to begin with.

"Why have you brought me out here, Master Xehanort?" she asked in a quiet tone that belied the sudden fire in her eyes. "The real reason."

"I see that you are far too sharp for me to completely fool." Xehanort said with a smile that made Lea shiver again. "I must say that I was being completely honest with you. I did bring you here so that you might recover from your faint in peace."

The anger in Astrid's eyes seemed to vanish as she turned her head. "What was your other reason?"

"I had hoped that we could come to, shall we say.. a mutually beneficial agreement?"

She looked at him again, and Lea wondered if her moods always flipped around so quickly. If so, maybe that was the real reason Beldinas kept her close.

"What kind of.. agreement exactly?" she asked. Was her breathing quickening?

"I'm sure that a lady with your intelligence can figure it out. You tell me what I need to know, and I -" Xehanort nearly leaned in until their faces were nearly touching. "- will make your wildest fantasies - the ones that you have never told anyone about – a reality."

Astrid closed her eyes and shivered, and Lea gulped and spun back around to face the wall. Nope, he wasn't watching any more of this. Behind him came the sound of clothing rustling, and Astrid sighed.

"What..?" Yup, her breathing was definitely getting heavier. "What do you want to know?"

"Mmm, nothing too serious. Just if you've any ideas about what Beldinas is planning? Perhaps some information about Isa's condition?"

"I... can't... tell you that." She was damned near panting now, and Lea wondered if they were going to screw each other right there with him in the room.

"Of course you can. Beldinas isn't here to say anything about it, after all, and he will never learn that you told me anything. Besides, you want me to go further, do you not?"

Astrid sighed, and Lea wondered just what was going on behind him. He wasn't about to turn around and find out, however.

"Master Beldinas tells me very little." Astrid finally said once a few more minutes had passed, and Lea could hear the frustration in her voice. "I have heard him complaining to Master Shini that your Braig has been too slippery for anyone to catch."

"Is that so?" Xehanort murmured. "What else can you tell me? What of Isa?"

"Isa... Isa is catatonic. He responds to nothing, not even pain. Master Beldinas believes that his heart was completely consumed by yours."

Lea clenched his jaw and squeezed his eyes shut. _Where is he!_ he wanted to shout. _What are you doing to him!_ He clamped down on the words. Let her talk, he told himself. She'd likely just clam up if he opened his mouth. Then they'd never learn anything about Isa.

And Xehanort would probably kill him for flapping his jaws, but that was beside the point.

"Is Master Beldinas deliberately harming him?" Xehanort asked, and Lea felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up at the danger in Xehanort's tone. In that moment, Xehanort sounded eerily similar to the blond haired stranger with the amber eyes that they'd encountered back on the world with Olympus Coliseum.

"No, no!" Astrid said quickly. "He only did that a few times to see if he would react to anything. Nothing like that has been done since, I swear!"

" _Good._ " Xehanort paused, and the room fell silent aside from the crackling fire. "He is being cared for properly, at least?"

There was another long pause, and then:

"Y-yes." Astrid stuttered. "Master Beldinas has a servant that cares for him."

"I am pleased to hear that. Do you have any other interesting information for me?"

Astrid whined, which reminded Lea of the time he'd once teased his neighbor's dog with a strip of bacon that he held just out of its reach, as well as the chewing out he'd gotten from Isa, once he'd found out.

"Master Beldinas thinks that we're the seven lights needed to forge the X-blade." she blurted, and then she gasped.

"Does he now? Anything else?"

No answer for a long moment.

"Come now, my dear. You want me to go further, don't you?"

Despite himself, Lea peeked over his shoulder to see Xehanort sit back away from Astrid, which resulted in another frustrated whine.

"Not until you tell me." Xehanort murmured.

"Master Beldinas needs the No Name keyblade to unlock something at the Land of Departure!" Astrid burst out, followed by her clasping her hands over her mouth and staring with wide eyes at Xehanort.

Xehanort smiled and stood up, and Astrid's eyes widened further as she looked up at him. The light of the fire threw the shape on his face into sharp relief, and Lea was once again reminded of a predator staring down its prey.

"Thank you, my dear." Xehanort said, and Lea shuddered at his tone. "You were most helpful."

He reached out to her with one hand and lightly touched her chest, directly above her heart.

She tried to stand up - "No!" - and Lea felt a surge of magic, from Xehanort to her, and she abruptly crumpled to the floor. She did not get up.

Xehanort dropped his hand and nodded to himself. "One down, six to go."

Lea took a hesitant step forward and stared at the motionless body lying in a pool of cloth next to the bench. "Is she dead?"

Xehanort nodded again. "Yes. A burst of pure magic, straight to the physical heart, stops it instantly."

Lea whipped his head up to stare at him. "You killed her!"

"I did."

"Why! She told you what you wanted to know, didn't she!"

Xehanort gave him a hard look. "And she would have run off to Beldinas and told him that she had met us eventually. She couldn't be trusted to keep quiet."

"Why would that make a difference! What would it change!"

"Enough!" Xehanort snapped, and the longhouse around them groaned as his magic flared. Lea flinched back as it pressed down on him, and Xehanort closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The feeling of pressure eased, and Xehanort opened his eyes, calmer than he had been a few seconds before. "This is for your safety. Yours and my father's. Though she said nothing about you, it is guaranteed that she saw you standing there in the corner. We cannot risk word of the two of us traveling together to get back to Master Beldinas. To allow such a thing to happen would cause enormous risk to yourself and to my Lord Ansem. He has let it be known that you left on your own initiative to search for Isa. If the Council were to learn that that is not true, then they will begin to suspect that he knows more than he has let on, and they will do anything to get the truth from him. That is a risk that I refuse to take."

Xehanort turned away and crossed the short distance to where Astrid's body was lying, and Lea just stared, frozen to the spot, as the other effortlessly hoisted the body up and draped it over his shoulders.

"Stay here." Xehanort said. "I will return after I take care of this."

Xehanort kicked the door open and went out, and Lea shivered as the frigid air outside rushed in. He slowly walked over to the door and closed it, and then he turned, leaned back against it, and slid down to the floor, staring silently at the fire.

 **OOOOOO**

The sound of footsteps crunching into the snow startled Lea out of the daze he was in, and he jumped to his feet and moved away from the door just in time for it to swing open. Xehanort came in, stamping the snow from his boots and shaking a layer of it off of his coat, as he dropped Lea's pack to the floor. When had he gotten that back?

"Here," He threw a bundle of black leather at Lea, "Put your coat on. We have to leave."

Lea looked up at him. "What?"

"Did I stutter? Put your coat on, so we can leave."

Lea blinked as the words percolated through his brain. Xehanort sighed, and Lea shrieked (Though he would deny it if anyone asked.) as a deluge of freezing cold water suddenly dumped itself over his head. The cold cut through his daze instantly, and he sputtered as it ran down his hair and soaked into his clothes. Before he could open his mouth and snap at Xehanort for that, the fire suddenly roared up, and the flames arced towards him and spun around him. For a few seconds that seemed to last forever, Lea was surrounded on all sides by a swirling wall of flame, before it abruptly vanished, leaving his clothes dry and warm.

He staggered to the side and stared at Xehanort. "How did you -?"

"Dual fire/water elemental, remember?" Xehanort replied. "Now put your coat on. We have to be gone before Master Astrid's presence is missed and others come back to this world to search for her."

"But what about my cloak and other winter clothes?"

"Leave the cloak, but leave the rest on. You can take them off later. Now stop questioning me and do as you are told."

Lea sighed. "Fiiiiine."

Xehanort gave him a look. "Watch that attitude, Lea Rosso."

Lea bit down on his bottom lip to stop the words that wanted to come out as he unfastened the cloak and let it drop to the floor. The coat fit a little tighter with the heavier clothing on under it, but he managed to get it on and zipped up. He then slung his pack over his shoulders and looked at Xehanort, who then summoned his keyblade and opened the Lanes Between without a word.

 **OOOOOO**

The trip through the Lanes was silent. Lea followed Xehanort towards their next destination (Wherever that was.) and kept his thoughts to himself as they went. Xehanort's killing of Astrid did make sense when he thought about it; Lea knew it would be a bad thing for him for the Council to learn that he was traveling with Xehanort. He also knew that it wouldn't be safe if they started to question just how much Ansem knew.

So why did it bother him so much?

Axel had killed, without hesitation and without any regard for his target. Even before Vexen and Zexion, Axel had done his fair share of dirty deeds. (He'd always wondered why Marluxia was given the title of assassin, but not him.) None of it had ever bothered him before. Hell, even Axel's killings of Vexen and Zexion had caused him no grief or remorse, as it had ended up working out for them in the end.

Maybe it was because it was Xehanort that had done it, this time. Maybe the callous way he'd killed Astrid was proof that, despite what he'd said about fixing things, Xehanort was still a monster and always would be. There had been no hesitation, no remorse. He'd just killed the woman like she was nothing.

He'd gotten complacent, Lea realized. He'd forgotten his resolve to never trust Xehanort, to always stay on guard around him. It was just that Xehanort had so many interesting things to say. Lea had learned more in the – he did a quick count – fifteen days (Had it really been that long already? It didn't feel like it.) since he'd followed the man off of Radiant Garden, than he'd learned in two years from Yen Sid and the others.

And Xehanort was certainly friendly for the most part. He was also quick to praise Lea when he got something right, which was something he hadn't expected. He had to admit to himself that Xehanort wasn't the tyrant he'd been expecting, and it had him puzzled. Ventus refused to speak of him at all, which led many to think that Xehanort had been a cruel master from the get-go. Yet, Xehanort often spoke fondly and with affection of Ventus and had related good things between the two of them.

Thinking about it all was giving him a headache.

Lea shook those thoughts off and they exited the Lanes and flew low over a green, craggy landscape, dotted with mountains, lakes, and valleys that were laced here and there with long, winding rivers. The sudden change from frigid early spring to a warm summer made Lea start as they flew over one lake that sprawled in a vaguely diagonal line from northwest to southeast below them. The sun's reflection shone up at them from its glassy surface as they flew low over it, and they landed next to a stone house with a thatched roof that was half fallen in on itself. Off in the distance, on a peninsula jutting out into the lake, stood a small section of crumbling stone wall.

"Stay here, Lea." Xehanort said once they had dismissed their keyblades, and Lea nodded without saying a word as Xehanort vanished through the doorway. The heavy wooden doorway appeared to have fallen off of its hinges at some point and now laid on the grass outside. A warm breeze set the grass to rustling, and Lea shucked his hood as Xehanort reappeared and waved for him to come in.

Lea crossed the short distance to the door and stepped inside. The sudden darkness inside left him blind for a moment before his eyes adjusted, revealing a single roomed interior that was in poor condition. Holes in the roof allowed pinholes of sunlight to shine down on the rough cut stone floor. Dirt and debris had piled up inside, blown in through the open door and broken windows. Here and there were what appeared to have been furniture at one time, but they were broken down and rotting. A fireplace, considerably smaller than the one back at the cottage on the abandoned world, sat on the left wall. Three of the walls had scorch marks and soot stains.

"What the hell happened here?" Lea asked as he stood just inside the door.

"A fire, I would say." Xehanort replied as he inspected the fireplace. "This place was in ruins long before I first came here, and I can only assume that this building burned at some point in its history and was never repaired. It took me some time, but I eventually able to use the loose stones that had fallen from other walls and build this little shack, using three of the original walls. The fourth I had to stack myself."

"And you did it all by yourself?" Lea stared at Xehanort in surprise as the latter reached into the fireplace and tossed out a heavily corroded pot.

"Well, I had some help. Eraqus actually helped me quite a bit here, back when Master Limahl was strong enough to be left alone for a while." Xehanort stood up and brushed the dust from his hands on his coat. "He helped me put the roof up as a matter of fact." He pointed up to it.

Lea let his eyes drift up. The thatch was rotting and falling off, but the beams and laths that supported it seemed to be in decent condition. "How long did that take you?"

"A couple of days. We slept under the open sky until then." A bird flew across the room. "Looks like some squatters have moved in since I was last here. We have some cleaning up to do."

Lea stepped further inside. "How long has it been since you were last here?"

Xehanort blew out a breath as he looked around. "At least 30 years? I think. Ventus was still in diapers the last time I was here."

Lea stopped and stared at Xehanort. "Thirty years? Ventus is over 30 years old?"

"Yes," Xehanort's voice was very quiet, "he is." He rubbed his coat sleeve across his eyes. "Let's get this place cleaned up."

 **OOOOOO**

The next couple of hours were dirty and tiring as they gathered up the broken bits of furniture and threw them out, followed by sweeping up the debris and chasing out the wildlife. The door was still in decent shape, but its hinges were rusted beyond all hope of use, so they had to settle for merely standing it up and leaning it against the wall. Thankfully, the doorway faced away from the nearby lake, as the breeze coming off of it could no doubt get chilly at times. The lake facing wall had windows, but the frames were rotted out, and the glass was long gone. Xehanort fixed that by gathering more stones and fitting them into the openings. The windows on the opposite side he left open.

"If it were anything but summer here, we would not be staying here." Xehanort explained as he washed the floor and fireplace with summoned water, while Lea stared in disbelief at the sight. Demyx had nothing on Xehanort, he realized.

"This world has a bitterly cold winter." Xehanort continued as a jet of high pressure water seemed to spray from the palms of his hands. "Not as cold as Arendelle's, but cold enough, and this place would need considerable work before it would be suited for that. The last time I was here, it was cozy enough for me to keep a sickly toddler while he recovered, but now we would freeze if we tried to stay here during the cold weather, fireplace or no." He relaxed and let his magic go, which caused the water to vanish. "It will suit us for a few days once the roof is fixed and the fireplace is ready."

"How do you fix a roof like this, though?" Lea asked, pointing up to the disintegrating thatch.

Xehanort gave him a faint smile and moved towards the door. "Follow me, and I will show you."

 **OOOOOO**

It was nearly full dark by the time they had patched the roof enough to get by, and Lea never knew that the simple acts of gathering and tying grass into bundles could be so tiring. Dinner that night was trout caught from the nearby lake, with wild mushrooms and bright purple flowers for vegetables. With the cookware too rusted to use ("It can be repaired," Xehanort had explained, "but we don't have the supplies or the time for that right now.") Xehanort had shown Lea how to use a broad, flat rock as a cook top, like he had two weeks before on Meadowseele.

They had eaten on the floor in front of the fireplace as the sun had set outside, and once that was done, the two of them had pushed the door into the door frame as much as possible, leaning it against a wall on one edge to keep it from falling over. Getting outside to relieve oneself would be interesting, but it would block out most of the wind and discourage the local wildlife.

To their surprise, one piece of furniture had been intact; a rocking chair. Its finish had nearly been worn off, and the joints were loose and rickety, but Xehanort's face had lit up with the largest smile he'd ever seen upon seeing it. He'd carefully cleaned the worn wood and set it up near the fireplace.

Xehanort was sitting in that chair now, gently rocking back and forth as the chair's joints creaked and popped. The fire cast his shadow across the room and across Lea, from where he sat on his bedroll, watching. The night sounds outside, the crackling of the fire, and the creaking of the chair seemed strangely peaceful to Lea.

"So now what?" he asked, reluctant to break the peace, but still curious anyway. "What do we do now?"

"We wait." Xehanort replied in a quiet voice. "No doubt Master Astrid's disappearance has been noted, so we're going to lie low for a few days. It's safe to assume that I'm at the top of the suspect list for that, so we're going to stay here while we wait for the search for her to ease up a little. While we're here, and since this world isn't overrun by Heartless, we can work on your survival skills, in addition to your other lessons."

Lea nodded silently, and the chair creaked loudly as Xehanort sat up and looked down at him.

"What is wrong, Lea?"

Lea shook his head and waved him off. "I'm fine."

"When I ask you a question, I expect an honest answer. Now, tell me what's wrong. I won't be angry at you for answering me when I ask a question."

 _Yeah, right._ Lea thought but didn't say.

"Lea..." There was that warning tone again. "I _will_ be angry if you refuse to answer me."

Lea sighed. "Was it really necessary to kill her?" he finally asked.

"Yes." Xehanort's answer was clipped. "Leaving her alive was a risk to you and Lord Ansem, as I've already said. She only answered my questions because of her infatuation with me and because I had her very distracted. Once her head had cleared, she would have run straight to Beldinas." Xehanort paused. "Why does that bother you so, Lea?"

"I'm really not sure. Axel sure took his fair share of lives, and he was regrowing a heart during the last two."

"It's because it was me committing the murder, I imagine, that's bothering you more than anything."

Lea looked up at him, and though Xehanort was heavily in silhouette by the fire behind him, Lea could still see his faint smile. "It's not that hard to figure out. I know how everyone save my father sees me, so it's not hard to guess that that is what's truly bothering you. Not that a murder was committed, but that a murder was committed by _me_."

Lea simply looked away, without bothering to refute Xehanort's statement. It was the truth anyway, so why bother?

Xehanort chuckled quietly. "Don't let it bother you too much, Lea. I doubt it will be the last life that I have to take on our little adventure here."

"You don't need to sound so blasé about it, you know."

"It's rather difficult for me not to be at this point." Lea looked up at him in confusion, and Xehanort laughed again. "Honestly, I lived on the roads, moving from world to world for over 40 years, Lea. Do you truly believe that I was never forced to defend myself or Ventus during that timespan? There were three kidnapping attempts against Ventus before he was ten; I was not going to leave anyone that attempted to harm my child alive. I had to kill someone to get care of him to begin with, so I was never going to take any chance with his safety.

"I was also very wealthy – you will almost never see a poor Keyblade Master, by the way – and it showed in the way I dressed. How many times do you think bandits and highwaymen tried to slit my throat to gain access to my munny pouch? Unless I was on a world with strict laws that governed such things, I dealt a harsh lesson to anyone that tried to take my life." Xehanort leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes for a moment. "It's one of the reasons why Master Limahl chose Eraqus as his heir instead of me. He knew that such a life would have been more than Eraqus could have handled. Eraqus could take someone's life if he felt the need was great, but it would have weighed on him heavily.

"Master Limahl already knew that I wished to see all the worlds, just as he knew that I was better suited to a life on the road."

"That's it?" Lea asked. "That was his only reason?"

Xehanort nodded. "He knew that I would have hated being tied to the Land of Departure, and he refused to do that to me. He knew that Eraqus would thrive with the structure of being the castle's future master, just as he knew I would love being able to see all there is to see. He made the right decision.

"Now don't misunderstand me. The first time I had to kill someone to save my own life, I ran straight home to Master Limahl. Imagine that, a 22 year old man, running home to his father like a scared child. Master assured me that I had only done what was necessary, that he was glad that I was safe, and that he would never judge me for saving my own life. He also smacked down Eraqus when the latter kept asking me if killing the man that had tried to decapitate me had truly been necessary."

"C'mon really?" Lea looked at Xehanort, who was now looking into the fire. "Someone tries to lop your head off and he asks you if you had to off that other person instead?"

"That was Eraqus for you. To be fair, he apologized to me later for implying that the other person's life was more valuable than mine and stated that he was glad that I had protected myself."

"Master Eraqus sounds like he could be a real party killer. Aqua's spoken about him a few times, and from what she's said, he was very straight-laced."  
" _Master_ Aqua, Lea, and don't let those stories fool you. Terra and Master Aqua only saw the proper Keyblade Master."

"Oh?"

"Eraqus could be wild when he wanted to be. He drank me under the table a time or two when we were younger."

Lea laughed at the image. "How did Master Limahl react to that?"

"His method for dealing with hungover apprentices involved dragging us out of bed and making us do chores for a while, all the while talking as loudly as possible, singing off key, and banging things around."

"That's cruel."

"But effective." Xehanort smiled faintly. "The two of us drove Master Limahl insane at times, I'm sure, but he told me before he died that he loved us more than anything else and that he wouldn't change anything."

"What happened to him?"

"Age. He lived to be 83 and died in bed, with Eraqus and I on either side of him, holding his hands. It took us hours to work up the courage to move him once he'd passed; taking him out of the bed would be acknowledging that he was gone. We'd just lost the only father we could remember, and we didn't want to face that he had died." Xehanort's voice trembled a bit.

Lea swallowed as Xehanort closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "What do you mean with him being the only father you could remember?" he asked once a few minutes had passed.

Xehanort took another breath, and Lea half expected him to ignore the question, but to his surprise, Xehanort began to speak.

"My parents died when I was six. Our house somehow caught fire in the early morning, and by the time the fire was discovered, it was too late to save them. Only the fact that I had spent the night at a friend's house prevented me from dying with them, and my memories of them slowly faded over the years that followed. I used to be able to recall my mother's voice, but that was one memory that never came back to me after I reformed after Xemnas was destroyed."

Xehanort paused, staring into the fire, and Lea wondered if he was seeing of the fire that killed his parents instead of the flames that had cooked their supper and kept the small, dilapidated shack warm against the cool, wet breezes coming off the lake.

"Eraqus, on the other hand..." Xehanort turned his head to look at Lea. "Do you remember when I said that on the abandoned world, people were either fabulously wealthy or completely poverty stricken?" Lea nodded. "Well, Eraqus' parents were in the latter group. They surrendered their starving child to Master Limahl in the hopes that he would have a better life with a complete stranger than he would have with them. From my understanding, right after doing so, they died in a murder-suicide to spare them from the agony of starving to death.

"It took Eraqus years to fully recover from the severe malnutrition that he'd suffered up to that point. He was four at the time, but he was smaller than a two year old. He couldn't walk due to severe rickets in his legs and back, his development was severely delayed, and Master Limahl said that he just cried constantly. Thankfully, the damage was reversible, so by the time Eraqus was a teenager there was no sign of it all."

Lea took a moment to think about everything that Xehanort had just told him. "Wow, do all keyblade wielders come from backgrounds like that?"

Xehanort laughed, though there was no humor in it. "Not all of us, no, but many seem to. Perhaps it's because a child undergoing training may go years without seeing their family, and few parents are willing to let their son or daughter go for that long. So the children with loving homes and happy childhoods don't get trained, while the children with no one to care for them get picked up easier. Master Limahl was one of those. His parents had him late in life when they had no need for a third son, so they were all too happy to throw him at Master Alexia when she came around."

"What about you then? You said your parents died."

Xehanort shook his head. "My foster parents were all too happy to see me gone." He stood up from the chair. "Let's turn in for the night. We have much to do tomorrow."

 **OOOOOO**

The sun had barely risen when Lea was dragged out of a deep sleep by Xehanort snatching his wool blanket off of him.

"Time to get up, Lea."

Lea cracked open one eye and glanced over at the windows, where he could see that the sky was just starting to lighten to a deep blue. "It's too early." he mumbled as he shivered. The fire was going; he could hear it crackling and see the light dancing across the walls, but the room had a chill to it regardless.

"Get up. We need to get breakfast going, and then we have a lot of work to do."

"Do I have to?"

"I will douse you if you don't move right now."

"Damn it," Lea grumbled as he dragged himself upright. "I'm moving. I'm up."

"No, you're not. You're still on your bedroll. Get up, before I make good on my threat."

Lea grumbled as he raked his hair out of his face and stood up. "Did you ever threaten Ventus that way."

Xehanort kicked another log into the fire; he looked wide awake, the bastard. "Not at first, no. Ventus was a morning person and was often awake before me. Later on, needless to say, I had far worse things to threaten him with than a dousing."

Lea didn't reply to that as he went about combing out his hair and brushing his teeth the best he could with only the water that Xehanort conjured for him. Once that was done, he followed Xehanort outside and down to the lake shore.

Fog was rising off of the still water, and it was thick enough that he couldn't see the little stone shack once they were at the lake's edge. Lea received a quick course in fish catching with only a line and hook, using an unlucky earthworm for bait.

"The best time to go fishing is during the cooler parts of the day." Xehanort explained. "The fish avoid the water's surface during the hotter times. They're also attracted to light, so if I were to do this -" He held up his hand, with a bright ball of fire held in it. "- it will draw them closer."

Lea wiggled the line to simulate the movement of prey. "Won't anyone see that? Or is this world abandoned too?"

"No, not abandoned, but it is very sparsely populated. It's the least populated of all the worlds that do have humans on them. It was that way even before the Keyblade War. The people that do live here live together in large family groups known as clans, and while they are not hostile to outsiders, they are somewhat wary of them. And it is best for us to lie low anyway for now."

"So there's no one around."

"Not for miles and miles in any direction. The closest settlement is a little over a mile away, and it has been abandoned for so long that almost nothing remains of buildings but half buried foundations and piles of rubble that have been overtaken by nature. The clan that built the ruined house we're staying in – and they're are also the ones who once owned the castle that used to stand over that way -" Xehanort pointed in the direction of where Lea had seen the small section of crumbling stone wall the previous day. "- left this area centuries ago."

Lea grinned at the thought of ruins to explore. "Will I have time to do some looking around?"

Xehanort nodded. "Of course, but I want you to be extremely careful. The castle once had a large basement, and there are very likely still places where you can fall into it. The same might be true for the village."

"I'll be careful, though.. I could just heal myself if I take a fall, right?"

"Not if it knocks you unconscious." Xehanort said. "Or kills you outright."

Lea swallowed. "Yeah, there's that too."

"So be careful."

"I will."

The fishing line jerked in Lea's hand and started to pull away from him. He clamped his fingers tightly around it, and the sudden pull nearly yanked him off of his feet.

"I think I got a bite!"

Xehanort nodded and smiled. "You do. Now haul it in."

Lea pulled on the line, but the fish pulled back. "Damn, that's one strong fish."

"Probably a good sized one. They are surprisingly strong."

Lea wrestled with the line for a few minutes while Xehanort stood by and watched, and he eventually dragged a struggling salmon up onto the shore. He hauled it into the air by the line and looked it over.

"It's kinda small."

Xehanort looked it over. "It's big enough for the two of us." He reached out and touched a finger to its head. Lea felt another surge of magic, smaller than the one from the previous day, and the fish went still. "There, better a quick death from magic than a slow one from suffocation."

"How do you do that?"

Xehanort turned around and began to walk back through the fog to the house. "I might explain it someday. Now come, there's more to be done before we can cook that fish."

Lea followed him, and once they were at the back of the house, he was surprised to see a large pile of stones, topped with a long flat piece, evidently set up as a work table of sorts. What followed – after he was sent back inside to get his dagger and reminded that was always supposed to have it on unless he was bathing or sleeping – was a lesson on how to gut and fillet a fish.

Fish innards, Lea soon learned, are cold, sticky, and they smell, and he grumbled about it as he worked, trying not to get any more blood on him than he already had.

"They're cold blooded animals." Xehanort pointed out. "What did you expect?"

"Not this, for sure." Lea grumbled as he carried the meat into the house to start cooking it.

Once the meat was on the fire, Xehanort conjured water for him to wash up with, and once his hands were clean, he was told to go clean the blade of his dagger.

"Always keep that blade clean and sharp." Xehanort said. "You don't want the blade to corrode or for it to be too dull to be of any use when you need it."

Once the fish had been cooked and eaten, and the washing up concluded (Not that there was much of that with no cookware outside of a rock.) the sky had lightened up considerably, and the fog had begun to lift. The rest of the morning was taken up by keyblade lessons, followed by a long walk, in which Xehanort pointed out edible plants and explained how to harvest and prepare them.

"Some people may think you can just live off the land, without having to do any extra work." Xehanort said as they walked towards where Xehanort said the abandoned village was. "Those people don't know what they're talking about. Humans require a great amount of nutrition and energy just to live without doing anything. Your brain alone consumes a third of your carbohydrate intake, and that's just by doing what it needs to do to keep you alive. When you're physically active or fighting for survival, the demand for energy drastically increases. At any rate, if we were to stay here long enough, the two of us would gradually deplete the natural resources from this area. We would harvest all of the edible plants and kill all of the animals we could catch, leaving nothing else for us to live on."

"So wait, how did early humans manage then?" Lea wondered as they came across what appeared to be the half buried foundation of some kind of building, just barely visible through the tall grass and weeds.

"They were likely migratory." Xehanort explained as they encountered a small pile of cobblestones that might have been a wall at one time. "But once agriculture was discovered, they were able to settle in one place and stay there."

"I kinda remember something like that from history class." Lea absently scratched his head. "It's been a while."

"I suppose it has been a while since you were in school."

"Yeah, things were kinda interrupted by losing my heart."

To Lea's surprise, Xehanort did not rise to the bait. "We will have to close the gaps in your education then. It wouldn't do to have an uneducated Keyblade Master down the road."

Lea stopped and looked at him, and Xehanort continued on for a few more steps before pausing and looking back. "What?"

"I just haven't thought about that part yet."

"About attaining mastery?"

Lea started walking again. "Yeah. I've just been so fixated on finding Isa that I haven't even considered becoming a Keyblade Master."

"I'm certain it will happen, though I cannot say when. You might earn it from me, or – this is more likely – from someone else. Even with the speed that I am pushing you, I still expect you to need at least a few years, depending on how dedicated you are to learning." Xehanort said as he started walking again, keeping pace with Lea.

"How long did it take you to reach mastery?"

"About seven years. I started training at age 13 and passed my Mark of Mastery at twenty. Eraqus was the same."

"And why can you simply call Master Eraqus by name, but you insist that I have to use his title?"

"It is called proper decorum." Xehanort looked at him. "Eraqus and I grew up together, were practically raised as brothers by Master Limahl, and we gave each other permission to call each other by name only. Even then, we still used our titles in formal situations, such as Terra and Master Aqua's Mark of Mastery exam. You are just an apprentice, you are not friends or family with Eraqus, and he cannot give you permission to address him only by name, so manners dictate that you use his title when speaking of him.

"It is the same with Master Aqua. You may know her personally, but you are not friends with her, and again, you are an apprentice, while she is a Master, so you must use her title."

"So does that mean when Sora gets his mastery, I can call him by name?"

"No, not unless he has granted you permission to do so, and just so you know, it's considered extremely rude to ask for such permission." Xehanort looked away and pointed to a small cluster of white flowers lying low the ground that vaguely reminded Lea of daisies. "Now back to the subject at hand. This plant here is called Chickweed, also known as Common Chickweed, Craches, Maruns, and Winterweed. You can tell it from its non-edible relatives by the line of fine hairs that appear on only one side of the stem and its hairless leaves. The leaves can be eaten raw, and make a good ingredient in salads. The flowers and stems are also edible, but they must be cooked first. The plant is a rich source of iron."

Lea blinked at the sudden subject change, and then he started to take notes in a notebook that Xehanort had bought him in Meadowseele for this very purpose.

"As a matter of fact," Xehanort knelt down and gathered several of the plants. "I think a salad would go great with whatever meat we have for lunch. We won't have any salad dressing, but it will be fine without it."

Xehanort turned and began to walk back towards the house, and Lea tucked the book in a pocket and followed him. "We won't be having just leaves in the salad, will we?"

"Of course not. There are other things we can add, such as the wild beets I spotted further back, and I'm sure there's some scallions growing around here somewhere. Trust me, Lea, if you know where and what to look for, you will never want for good food on the road."

"How long did it take you to get the hang of this?"

"A few years. The most difficult part was learning to actually look for edibles without skimming over them. It's very easy for your eyes to slide right past something without seeing it. Just before our Mark of Mastery, Master Limahl took Eraqus and me out into the forest on the other side of the Land of Departure, and we spent three nights there. Eraqus and I had to go find everything we needed for our meals, and only once we had done all of that, did Master deem us ready for the Mark of Mastery."

"So what exactly did you do for your Mark of Mastery?" Lea spotted a hare running across the path they were on, and he pointed it out to Xehanort.

Xehanort nodded and smiled. "Hares are native to this area, and snaring them is a viable way to get some fresh meat, though we'll probably use an easier way today.

"To answer your question, Master dropped us off on the edge of that forest the cottage was in on the abandoned world, and we had 24 hours to make it to the five miles to the cottage in the center."

"That doesn't seem like much."

"It doesn't, until you consider that the forest is infested with Heartless. Eraqus and I had to fight our way through, and we made it just barely within the time limit."

"It seems strange, your master using the ruins of his homeworld for an exam. Didn't it bother him being back there?'

Xehanort shook his head. "No, he considered the Land of Departure his homeworld, and from what he told me over the years, his parents had kept him confined, and the day he met Master Alexia was the first time he'd been out of his parents' house."

"Well, they sound like wonderful people. Who treats their own kid that way?"

"Those who did not want said kid and wanted him to know it."

"Wow," Lea shook his head in disgust. "I just can't understand why people are like that."

"It is sad, but true; not every child is wanted and welcomed." Xehanort said quietly, and Lea looked at him at the sudden change in his voice, but the Keyblade Master said nothing more, and the rest of the walk to the house was made in silence.

 **OOOOOO**

Lunch that day was a hare that Xehanort had used magic to bring down.

"Hares and rabbits are creatures of habit, as are most animals." he had explained as they had waited for a hare to appear where one had been spotted closer to the house earlier. "They take the same paths when they need to go somewhere. Snares are very effective at grabbing them, and I'll show you how to make those later, but if you're in a hurry, and you're in a safe place, magic can make things much easier."

That had been proven true when a hare had poked its head out in front of them, and a blast of thunder magic from Xehanort had easily crossed the distance and impacted with the animal's head, killing it instantly. A lesson in skinning, gutting, and butchering a hare had come next, and the skinning, using a knife that Xehanort had lent him, had made Lea squirm until Xehanort had reprimanded him for it.

"The animal is dead and cannot feel any pain, Lea, so quit acting like a schoolgirl in front of a spider's web and do what I tell you."

Lea closed his eyes and did a full body shiver. "It's just... I'm pulling its skin off. Just... ugh." He shivered again.

"It'll get easier the more you do it. Now keep working if you want to eat anytime soon."

"Can we stick with fish from here on out?"

"No, you must vary your diet as much as possible to prevent a nutritional deficiency, and just so you know, some fish also have to be skinned. Now keep going. The faster you move, the sooner the skinning will be over."

Lea opened his eyes and took a breath. "Right."

Once the meat was cooking over the fire on a makeshift spit and Lea had washed up, Xehanort led him around, looking for other things to add to the meal. The beets and scallions that he had mentioned were quickly gathered up, and Lea wondered if Xehanort was going to do a happy dance when they ran across wild growing potatoes.

"It's rare to find these here." Xehanort explained as they used their daggers to carefully dig them up. "Potatoes aren't native to most of the worlds; they were spread around by humans before the Keyblade War, and these here are probably descendants of domesticated ones that were planted by someone that had once lived here." He reached in and pulled out a tuber. "The leaves and stems of the plant are poisonous to humans, but the tuber itself is a good source of vitamins B6 and C. The potato is also mostly starch, which is good for a quick burst of energy, but sadly for us, humans don't digest it raw very well. When cooked, the starch becomes easier to digest, but the amounts of B6 and C drop noticeably, destroyed by the heat. Still, it's good as a filler, so you feel less hungry when you're short on better things to eat. Not to mention," He smiled faintly, "they just taste good."

Lunch was good, Lea realized after they'd eaten. The hare had been rich and tender, the salad a bit bitter, but good (and very colorful, with the red beets and green leaves and scallions), and the potatoes, sprinkled with salt and wrapped in a bit of tinfoil that Xehanort had pulled out of his pocket, had made Lea think of home.

Upon Lea's asking, Xehanort had emptied the pockets of his coat and laid out everything he carried in them. The roll of tinfoil ("Never leave home without it; it has too many uses.") had just been the start.

Xehanort carried a tent, his bedroll, a first aid kit ("You might not be able to cast healing magic right away.") a fire starter kit, his skinning knife ("They didn't have one back on Meadowseele, so we'll have to find you one later on.") a coiled rope, fishing lines and lures, a container of salt, his own mess kit, books, writing journals, writing supplies, and so many other little things that Lea lost quickly track of.

"How do you keep track of all of that?" Lea asked as Xehanort began to repack it all. "How can you reach in and grab what you want?"

"Magic," Xehanort said simply. "It took me several days to layer the spells and enchantments over my pockets to reach the desired result."

"So how do you grab exactly what you want then?" Lea asked as he stared at the strange sight of a large, hardcover book vanishing into a small pocket.

"More magic. It's an intent based enchantment that immediately pulls up the object I'm thinking of when I reach in."

"And if you're not thinking of anything and just want to warm you hands up? What then?"

"Since I don't have any intent to get anything, then the magic does not activate, and it's just a normal pocket."

Lea stared at him. "No way. It can't be that simple."

Xehanort laughed and held up his coat. "Would you like to try it yourself then?"

Lea looked at him. "I dunno. You don't have anything in there that will bite me if I stick my hand in there, do you?"

Xehanort chuckled. "No, nothing like that. Go ahead, give it a try. Just reach in without thinking of anything in particular."

Lea eyed him for a moment, and then he hesitantly reached out for Xehanort's coat. He stuck his hand into the closest pocket and felt nothing. Absolutely nothing but the pocket's lining.

He pulled his hand back out. "What the hell? I saw you stuff things back in there."

Xehanort smiled. "Now reach in while thinking of grabbing, say, the salt."

"Okay then." Lea reached back in, thoughts of the salt running through his head, and his fingers immediately felt the heavy cardboard canister that contained the salt. He grabbed onto it, pulled it out, and looked at it with wide eyes.

"How in the hell is this possible?"

"As I said," Xehanort replied. "Magic. The spells essentially create a pocket dimension of sorts, one that you can't access unless the magic senses your intent to do so. The same is true when you're putting things away. The magic senses your intent to store the object there, so it's pulled into the pocket dimension."

Lea put the salt back, and he snatched his hand back when it abruptly vanished from his grip. "That is weird."

"But very, very useful. I quickly grew tired of carrying a heavy pack around, so I spent years searching for an easier way to transport my things. I found these spells quite by accident."

"How did you do that?"

"I visited a world far, far away from here, one that was very similar, yet very different at the same time to this one, where such magic was commonplace. The magic there is very different to our own, so it took me some time to learn it, but I came away with a couple useful things."

"Like what? Other than the spells on your coat, I mean."

Xehanort stood up and laid his coat over the back of the rocking chair. "I will show you sometime, but for now, you have more lessons, so let's get busy."

 **OOOOOO**

The rest of the afternoon and the early evening passed in a haze of keyblade sparring and magic practice. Once the light began to dim, supper in the form of roasted fish with more potatoes and wild greens was prepared. Once they had eaten and cleaned up, Xehanort parked himself in the rocking chair, while Lea sat on the floor nearby to write a letter to Isa. He made note of all the edible plants he had learned about and his squeamishness when it came to skinning the hare, and he remarked that if he ever got back to Radiant Garden, he was going to buy a bottle of salad dressing and take it with him. He didn't know how he was going to keep it from spoiling without refrigeration, but he would figure something out.

Once the letter was written, and the book was back in his pack, he sat there staring at the fire as the sun vanished behind the mountains outside.

"It's so quiet out here." he said. "I don't think I've ever experienced quiet like this before." He looked up at Xehanort, who was looking down at him. "You understand what I'm talking about, right?"

Xehanort gave a slow nod. "There's always some kind of noise when you're in a city, or even just a large town. Even the abandoned world had the Heartless constantly rustling about. Places like this though, the only sounds are nature and what you personally cause."

"Yeah, exactly. Was the Land of Departure quiet?"

"Fairly so. Not as quiet as it is here. The Land of Departure had a decent sized town on it close to the castle, and while it wasn't loud per se, it wasn't completely quiet either. The castle itself hummed quietly, due to the powerful wards that surrounded it, and I grew so used to that sound that I had a hard time falling asleep away from the castle for a few weeks after that."

Lea frowned in thought. "I don't remember hearing any hum."

"That's for two reasons: the wards are not at full strength now, and in all likelihood, you are not as sensitive to magic as I am. Eraqus could not hear the wards either, but Master Aqua could, even as a child. Master also could, but that was because he was bonded to them. Before Master Alexia handed them over to him, he had never heard them."

"Why are you so sensitive to magic then?"

"Ancestry, I suppose. From what little I know of my family history, powerful magic has been with us for roughly seven hundred years. The more powerful you are, the easier it is for you to detect it elsewhere."

Lea nodded and didn't say anything else. The room went quiet again aside from the creaking chair and crackling fire.

"Where did you get that chair?" Lea asked after a bit. "It couldn't have been easy to bring it out here." He pictured Xehanort fluttering along through the lanes, hefting the rocking chair, and the image made him grin a little.

"I didn't bring it out here." Xehanort replied in a soft voice. "It was already here when I found this place, but it was rotting and falling apart then, and I ignored it until I brought Ventus here. Ventus was very sick when I took him, and my plans to get him to Radiant Garden for medical care were shot down when he deteriorated the longer we were in the Lanes. I finally landed here out of desperation, in the hopes that he would stabilize."

"And what happened then?" Lea prompted when Xehanort did nothing but stare into the fire without a word for a few more minutes.

"He did stop deteriorating, finally, but I was left with a toddler that felt horrible and wanted everyone to know it. He cried constantly, even when he didn't have the breath to do so. He even cried until he passed out once or twice. Nothing I did seemed to soothe him, and one day, while I was out gathering medicinal plants in the hopes of easing his illness long enough to get him to Radiant Garden, I came back to the house to find Ventus sleeping peacefully, curled up in the chair, that had somehow been repaired."

Lea blinked. "So it just fixed itself?"

"Oh, someone did that, of that I'm certain."

"But who? Master Limahl?"

"No, Master had died two years before, so it wasn't him."

"Did you ever figure out who it was then?"

"I have a good idea who it was." Xehanort replied as he glanced out the window as the last rays of the sun vanished from sight.

He didn't elaborate, and something told Lea not to push. "So," he asked instead. "did you try healing magic on Ventus?"

Xehanort shook his head. "Illness is not something that can be fixed really. The symptoms are an immune response to an invader. Healing magic can ease a fever sometimes, but it is mostly ineffective for such things.

"At any rate, the rocking of the chair soothed Ventus very well, enough that he started to spend more time sleeping than crying. Once he was getting enough rest, he started to improve until he was well enough to made the journey to Radiant Garden."

Xehanort sighed quietly and stared into the fire. "Go to bed, Lea." he finally said without looking away. "We have another busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

Lea bristled at being sent to bed like a kid, but a glance of the faraway look in Xehanort's eyes cooled his temper quickly.

"Yeah, okay." he said as he stood up. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Xehanort's voice was barely a whisper.

Lea kicked his boots off and laid down in his bedroll, and Xehanort's shadow fell across him. They Keyblade Master did not move from the chair, and he was still there when Lea's eyes closed and sleep pull him under.


	8. Just a Dream

**A/N: Yeah, sorry about the long delay. Real life has been insane the past couple of months, and chapter 11 is moving at maybe a sentence a day as a result. Since I am writing ahead, I decided to go ahead and throw this one at you early, just so you can read it while I try to get 11 moving faster.**

 **8.  
** **Just a Dream**

"Get up, Lea!" Xehanort's yell shattered the peace of Lea's dreams as his blanket was yanked away. "Get up right now!"

"Huh?" Lea mumbled as he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Xehanort was standing at the foot of his bedroll, keyblade in hand. "I said get up!" He spun around in place and pointed No Name at a small dark shape peeking through a window. A ball of fire erupted from his keyblade and impacted with the dark shape, which vanished.

"Heartless!" Lea jumped to his feet as Proud Flame appeared in his hand without him having to call it.

Xehanort vanished out through the door, and Lea ran out after him without even pausing to put his coat on. He stepped outside and paused when he saw the mass that was waiting for them. Shadow Heartless covered the ground in front of the house an a seething mass that seemed to move as one entity. Only the occasional glimpse of beady yellow eyes allowed him to tell the Shadows apart from each other.

Xehanort had already waded into the thick of them, and Lea could see his keyblade swinging in the light of spellfire, clearing out entire swaths of them at once. Lea jumped right in after him, swinging his keyblade with one hand and throwing fire with the other. The Shadows closest to him all seemed to pause and look at him then, and he shivered as dozens of beady, yellow eyes all turned in his direction. They blinked in unison, and then they surged towards him, moving like a wave rolling across the ocean.

A wall of flame erupted up from the ground in front of Lea and rolled away from him, incinerating any Heartless in its way. A swing of Proud Flame knocked a few stragglers away, but another wave of Shadows just seemed to appear and filled the hole left behind by the previous ones.

"Where the hell are they coming from!" he shouted to Xehanort.

A Mega Flare from Xehanort cleared some breathing room. "We'll worry about that later! Just destroy as many as you can, quickly!"

"Right," Lea said to himself as he focused his attention on the Heartless crowded closest to him.

It was awkward, he quickly realized, facing down the Heartless with a weapon that he still barely knew how to use. In his peripheral vision, he could see glittering hearts flying away as Xehanort hacked his way through the crowd, while using magic only to clear space around himself, and Lea found himself turning to watch.

Xehanort ducked, dodged, rolled, teleported, and spun his way through the horde, never standing still, never staying in one place for more than a second or two. No Name was also in constant motion, slicing, stabbing, and chopping, moving so fast that Lea had a hard time following it. Magic was also cast through it, just as Sora, Master Aqua, and everyone else with a keyblade did, but Xehanort also cast easily through his left hand, something that Lea had never seen before.

Claws raked down his leg then, shredding his pant leg and drawing blood. Lea yelped in pain and kicked the offending Shadow away before launching a fireball at it through his keyblade. The other Heartless crowded around him, sensing a weaker target. Without thinking about it, Lea dismissed Proud Flame and summoned his chakrams. He cloaked them in fire and sent them flying out in front of him. Several Heartless disintegrated under the force of the attack, only to be replaced by more that rose up from the ground.

Lea caught his chakrams as they came spinning back to him, and then he waded into the throng, slicing through every Heartless within reach. But for every one that he destroyed, two more rose in their place. A quick check to his right showed that Xehanort was having similar problems, if his drastic increase in magic use was anything to go by.

Another Mega Flare from Xehanort vaporized a large group of them, and the rest seemed to pause. They all turned to look at Xehanort and froze in place for a moment. Then, as one, they all melted away into the shadows and disappeared.

Lea felt his shoulders slump, and he looked over at Xehanort. "Is that it?"

Xehanort did not answer right away, nor did he relax and dismiss his keyblade. He looked over at Lea.

"Lea," he said, "get your keyblade back out."

"What? Why? The Heartless are gone, aren't they?"

"No, they're not. Now get your keyblade back out. Right now!"

"But -" Lea found himself interrupted then, as the ground between them erupted, and a tall, spinning column of Darkness shot up into the air. Hundreds of yellow eyes peered at at them, and Lea backed up a step when he realized that he was looking at a spinning column that was made up entirely of Heartless.

"What the hell?"

"Get on your glider!" Xehanort shouted. "Go high up in the sky and wait for me! Do NOT come down until I come to get you!"

Lea stared at the furiously whirling Heartless tornado for a moment as Xehanort began to attack it, and then he summoned Proud Flame, turned it into its glider form, and rode it a couple of hundred feet in the air. He hovered there and looked down at the battle below.

The Heartless dove, weaved, and spun around the open space in front of the house as Xehanort teleported around to avoid it. It was the same as during the fight with the normal Shadow Heartless, only this time, the Keyblade Master was moving much faster. Lea struggled to follow him as he landed a few strikes with No Name and then vanished from sight and reappeared elsewhere. Magic from all the elements flew from his left hand, sometimes hitting hard enough to temporarily knock the tornado apart. The Heartless would then scatter across the ground and mill about in confusion for a second or two before reforming.

Still, despite how many hits he landed, Xehanort didn't seem to be damaging the Heartless at all. Lea couldn't see any hearts flying away, nor did the tornado seem to be getting smaller.

"What the hell are you doing, Nort-nort?" he muttered out loud. Was Xehanort even trying? Was he just showing off? If he was, why?

Xehanort teleported to stand in front of the house, and as the Heartless whirled around towards him, he pointed No Name straight at them, using both hands to hold onto it.

"Fire!"

A stream of flame, flowing almost like a liquid, jetted out of his keyblade and flew straight at the Heartless. The spell did not end there; Xehanort maintained his position and grip, and fire continued to pour from No Name. Xehanort then gave the keyblade a flick, and a ball of fire shot off towards the Heartless, taking a shape as it went.

Was that a shark?

Lea reared his head back and stared. Yes, that was a shark alright. It "swam" through the air straight at the Heartless just as Xehanort gave his keyblade another flick, and another fireball came flying out. This one took the shape of a fish of some kind, while the stream of fire from earlier spun around the Heartless tornado, engulfing it. Heartless began falling off of it, burning, and vanishing before they hit the ground, while the fiery animals swam around, attacking any straggler that tried to escape.

Through it all, Xehanort just stood there, with his gaze fixed on the fire that he had summoned. He only moved when the shark seemed to notice Lea hovering above and began moving towards him. Lea heard Xehanort say something – it was difficult to hear over the roar of the fire – and pointed at the Heartless. The shark hovered in place for a moment, and then it slowly turned away and returned to attacking the Heartless.

The fire roared, and Lea felt the heat on his face as it began twisting and writhing, seeming like a living animal in its own right. More Heartless broke off and tried to scuttle away, but the spinning fire suddenly grew limbs and reached out for them. Hands of flame seized the fleeing Heartless and destroyed them instantly The fire thinned, grew taller, and more appendages started appearing out of its "back" as the flame animals grew in size. Finally, no more Heartless could be seen anywhere, and Xehanort clasped his hands together. The fire began to shrink, roaring in what sounded to Lea like frustration, as Xehanort held his hands together. The fire animals dove at him, but they shrunk down as though they were being crushed and exploded in a shower of sparks and embers. The fiery being began losing its shape, dimming and growing cooler, until it finally shrank down to nothing and abruptly vanished with a loud _crack!_ that echoed across the valley.

Lea's head jerked in surprise at the sudden darkness that swallowed the clearing, and he blinked his eyes and rubbed them a few times. Slowly the other worlds above became visible again, followed by the outline of the house, just barely visible in the faint sliver of moonlight. A second later, he was just barely able to make out Xehanort flying up to him.

"Come back down, Lea."

They descended to the ground in silence, and Xehanort stumbled as they walked back into the house. He made it to the rocking chair and dropped bonelessly into it.

"Build the fire back up." he mumbled. "I don't care how you do it as long as it is done."

Lea nodded, kicked a few logs into the grate, and set it aflame with a thought. As the warm light filled the room, Xehanort slumped down in the chair.

"Go back to bed, Lea." he said. "I'm going to have a late start in the morning. Enjoy it while you can."

He started snoring quietly then, and Lea stared at him for a few seconds, questions filling his mind, before he went to his own bedroll and laid down. A day to sleep in sounded like just the thing.

 **OOOOOO**

Xehanort was already up when Lea woke later. The sun was shining brightly through the windows as he cooked breakfast on the fire, another rabbit, if the smell was anything to go by.

"Good morning." he said without turning around. "Or actually, good afternoon."

Lea sat up and raked his hair back from his face. "Afternoon? Seriously?"

"We had an exciting night last night, and I used a great deal of magic, so I decided that a late start would be fine. Now come and eat."

Lea stood up, stretched, and then walked the short distance to the fireplace, whereupon Xehanort handed him a plate. Breakfast was rabbit and potatoes, and Lea hungrily dug in.

"What was that spell you used last night?" he asked between bites.

Xehanort swallowed the bite that he had just taken. "That was the most dangerous fire magic that I know. I learned it from the same place I learned the space enchantments on my coat pockets. And no, I won't teach it to you, at least, not now."

"Oh, c'mon. Why not?"

"Because, as I said, it is the most dangerous fire magic that I know, and it is extremely difficult to control. Wrangling it and snuffing it out is what left me so tired last night. As of right now, you have no hope of keeping it under control."

"What happens if you lose it?"

"It will run wild and destroy everything it can. It feeds off magic, so it would have gone straight for me and you first, and it would have started secondary, normal fires as it went. Once it roars completely out of control and grows to an enormous size, only Lord Asoth himself can stop it."

"Is that why the shark thing tried to come after me?"

"Mm-hmm." Xehanort nodded.

"I've never seen fire take shapes like that before."

"If I had let the spell go, it would have produced more of them. Did you see how the main fire was growing limbs towards the end? That was it taking on another form, but I snuffed it before the shape could be fully realized." Xehanort took another bite, chewed, and swallowed. "Anyway, we're going to have another late night tonight. It looks like the night might be clear – and that reminds me, weather forecasting is another thing I need to teach you – so tonight should be the perfect night to work on world navigation again."

"Can you actually predict the weather? The forecasts back home weren't always the most accurate."

"Well, it is not possible to predict it with 100% accuracy, just because there are so many factors involved, but it is possible to get a pretty good idea of what the weather will be like over the next several hours with some observations and a few simple tools." Xehanort took another bite of his potatoes. "Anyway, hurry up and eat. We have things to do."

 **OOOOOO**

The day was filled with more lessons on keyblade use, magic, and survival. Xehanort taught Lea how to make and set simple snares and traps, and walked him through the woods and fields, showing him more edible plants. Lea took copious notes of it all, and he spent a couple hours just making rudimentary sketches of them, so he would be able to more easily identify them later.

"Don't worry too much about it." Xehanort said when Lea grumbled as the poor quality of his work once they were back at the house as the sun began to set. "I don't expect you to become the next da Vinci overnight."

Who or what was a da Vinci?

"As long as you have the basic shapes and the important details," Xehanort continued, "any drawing will suffice. If you're worried, you can even press leaves, stems, and flowers in your book. Just don't forget that they are there."

"Did you draw everything at first?"

"I did. Master insisted upon it."

"Did you suck at it?" Lea asked with a grin.

Xehanort snorted. "You have no idea. I couldn't draw to save my life in those days, but Master just told me what I had told you, and I improved greatly with time."

"What about Master Eraqus?"

"He was good enough at it, but he never considered himself particularly skilled."

"What about Master Limahl?"

"The man couldn't draw a stick figure to save his life." Xehanort smiled. "The piano and ice skating were his things."

"So it was him that taught you how to play?" Lea asked, and then he stopped abruptly. He hadn't meant to mention that.

Xehanort looked at him. "I take it you saw me playing back on Meadowseele?"

"Yeah, when Lumaria was leading me back to my room, we came across you playing."

Xehanort relaxed back into the chair and turned to face the fireplace. "Yes, he is the one that taught me. Piano, reading, and drawing were my hobbies then."

"What about Master Eraqus?"

"He enjoyed reading and long hikes. He disliked wilderness survival, but he enjoyed being out away from other people, and hiking made that possible."

"What else did you guys do living there?"

"Oh, plenty of things. We had horses at the castle, so we went riding quite often. There were camping trips that were just for fun. We went sledding and ice skating in the winter, and Master was one of those who could dance on skates. Eraqus and I could never do that, and it dazzled us to watch Master do it. The man was poetry in motion at times.

"Eraqus and I played chess a lot. We played nearly once a day for most of our time there, and occasionally, we could wrangle Master into a game or two. And of course, we each had our own hobbies, though Master and I were frequently in the music room together as he taught me to play, or when I listened to him playing. Eraqus and I would oftentimes drag our chess game in there, so we could listen."

"Did Master Limahl play a lot?"

Xehanort laughed quietly. "Oh, he did. The music room was his favorite place to be, and if Eraqus and I ever needed him during the daylight hours, chances are that's where we would find him. After he passed, Eraqus commissioned a portrait of him to hang above the fireplace in there, because he said the room felt wrong without him there in some way." Xehanort looked thoughtful. "I wonder what it looks like. I've never seen it, as I stayed away in the years between Master's death and when I dumped Ventus there, and by then, I hadn't touched a piano in a few years."

Xehanort looked out the windows as the sun vanished behind the mountains. "Ah good. It should be dark enough to work outside in an hour or so."

Lea shifted on his bedroll, wishing that he had a chair of his own to sit on. "What will we be doing out there?"

"Navigation. You'll be able to see the worlds closest to us once it's full dark outside, so it will be perfect to start learning how they move in relation to each other."

"It can't be all that exciting. I've looked up at the night sky before; there's not that much to see."

Xehanort looked at him again. "Oh yes, I've forgotten about that. You've never seen the night sky without it being affected by sky glow."

"Sky glow? What the hell is that?"

"Light pollution basically. Radiant Garden's main city and the World That Never Was have enough light coming up from the ground to interfere with your eyes' ability to see the night sky in its full glory. You would have been able to see it on the Abandoned World and on Calypso's world, but we were busy with other things." Xehanort smiled. "You're going to be in for a treat."

"I saw it when we were in the Lanes Between the other day. What's the big deal?"

Xehanort smiled again. "You'll see."

 **OOOOOO**

A half hour later, Xehanort abruptly doused the fire, which plunged the small house into near total darkness.

"What the hell!" Lea exclaimed. "I can't see!"

"That's the point." Xehanort said from over by the fireplace. "Being in the dark will allow your night vision to fully come on over the next half hour or so, and you will need that to fully appreciate what you're about to see."

Lea huffed and folded his arms over his chest. "I'm expecting to be disappointed."

Though he couldn't see him, Lea was willing to bet that Xehanort was smiling. "You won't be. Trust me."

 **OOOOOO**

Thirty minutes later, found Lea following Xehanort outside. Xehanort hadn't been lying about the night vision; by the time they stepped outside, Lea could only easily see Xehanort walking ahead of him, and his hair seemed to glow in the starlight. They walked around the side of the house and moved a decent distance away from it.

"So not to block our view." Xehanort explained as he sat down on the grass. "Have a seat, Lea."

Lea sat. "Now what?"

"Now, just look up."

Lea huffed again and looked up, and he felt his breath stop for a moment.

He had seen it all before, the other day in the Lanes; the light of the other worlds, the magic in the Lanes themselves, but now he was seeing it an completely different way.

The multicolored magic of the Lanes was brushed across the sky as though it had been painted there by an artist's brush. The light of the other worlds sparkled, scattered across the colors like diamonds on black velvet.

"Wow," he whispered as he stared.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Xehanort said from his right.

"Yeah," Lea breathed, "it looks so different from down here."

"It's hard to get the full view of it when you're inside the Lanes. It's only when you're outside of them that you get to see them in their entire glory. Of course, being able to see all of the worlds spinning around the sun is an impressive sight in its own right, but this? This is just something special here."

"Yeah, it is."

"Sadly, thousands of people will never see it, due to light pollution and sky glow, including people from Radiant Garden's three major cities."

Lea looked over towards Xehanort, though he could only barely see him. "Why don't you do something about it then? You're Heir Xehanort, aren't you?"

"Who says I didn't try? It was something that I did complain to my father about years ago, and he and I had been discussing the best way to go about correcting the light pollution when my Darkness began to return. Needless to say, once that had gotten started, being able to see the night sky was no longer on my list of concerns." Lea heard Xehanort's clothing rustle. "And of course, it's not like I can spearhead a plan to have all streetlights point downward towards the ground right now, with the death sentence on my head."

"But Ansem doesn't want to execute you. So why do you still have a death sentence?"

"He can hardly rescind it without arousing suspicion, Lea." Xehanort sounded exasperated.

Lea scratched his head and felt his face heat up. Good thing it was so dark out... "Oh, right."

"Now pay attention. Though the other worlds are spinning around the sun at a ridiculous rate, since the world we are on is also moving, the motion is not as visible from down here.

"Most of what you're seeing are not worlds, it should be noted. Some of it is leftover debris from The Sundering, and those remains catch the sun's light just well enough to be visible from worlds that are close enough."

Lea laid back on the grass and pillowed his head on his hands as he looked up at the display above him.

"So what worlds are those?" he asked.

There was the sound of Xehanort moving around, followed by a click, and then a thin, green beam of laser light pointed up into the sky, appearing to shine right up to a bright spot nearly directly above them.

"That is Radiant Garden." Xehanort said. "Like this world, it is in its summer, and as I said earlier, it is the third largest of all the worlds contained within the Lanes." The laser then swung over to another spot of light that was dimmer than Radiant Garden. It also appeared to be smaller. "That is Enchanted Dominion. It is Maleficent's homeworld."

Lea turned his head slightly in Xehanort's direction. "Where is she anyway? I haven't seen her in a while."

"I've no idea." Xehanort replied. "No doubt she's off scheming on how best to take advantage of my disappearance. Anyway," He moved the light to point at another world that looked greenish in color, "That there is Deep Jungle. It's a stunningly beautiful world, but it is very dangerous for those with no survival skills."

"Why is that?"

"Like Port Royal, the insects there can carry nasty diseases, and it is home to many dangerous creatures, including ones that won't think twice about trying to make a meal out of a lone human. There are also a great number of animals that have a venomous bite. Because of all of that, the jungle is one of the most difficult types of environment to survive in."

"But you'll teach me how to do that, right?"

"In time, yes, I will." Xehanort shuffled around until he was facing towards the east, and then he pointed the laser at a dot just visible above the mountains. "That place is Neverland. Until I give you clearance to do so, you are not to step foot on that place, not unless you absolutely have no other option."

Lea turned to look at it himself. "Why? Roxas never said a bad thing about it. I was always irritated that Saïx only sent Axel to the city side. I think being able to fly would have been pretty cool."

"Neverland is a truly unique place. No other world I have ever seen, anywhere, is quite like it. The city that exists on one side of it is perfectly normal, and only a century or so behind Radiant Garden in technology. Yet, for some reason, the far side of the world is saturated in its own form of magic that I have never seen, in this universe or the next."

"What do you mean?"

"In that one half of Neverland, if you wish it, it will happen."

"Wait, what?"

"If you wish it, it will happen. It's exactly as it sounds. Pixies exist on other worlds, yet no amount of getting sprinkled with their dust will make you fly on those other worlds. Eating imaginary food will cause you to starve to death anywhere else; on Neverland, you will thrive on it. If, on any other world, you were to fly towards the second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning, you would eventually lose sight of that star as you flew around the world. On that world? It's how you get from London to Neverland itself. The most interesting part? On the magic side of Neverland, you will not age a day."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. The one person who knows how such a thing came to be refuses to tell, so no one else has any idea how such magic came to saturate half of an entire world. What's even stranger still, if you leave London by any means other than flying while aiming at a particular star, you won't end up in Neverland at all. You simply arrive at the other side of London.

"Perhaps Neverland exists in a form of hyperspace somehow, and aiming for a certain spot allows one to access it? Of course, then we would have to explain how the Lanes Between lead straight to it as well, but I am not a physicist, so I cannot say."

Lea wondered what hyperspace was for a moment, but then Xehanort continued. "What I can say is that the group of boys that live there are led by someone that I want you to stay well away from. Peter Pan was already there when I was still a boy, and while he seems like a generally decent person overall, there is something about him that I never liked. He always struck me the type that would murder his own son if it would get him something he wants."

Lea looked at Xehanort. "Oh, c'mon, really? He can't be that bad."

"Yes, he can. You're forgetting that all of the children there are exactly that, children, with no supervising adults to stop them from being greedy little psychopaths. Think back to how you were as a boy. Think about how you acted, especially when no one was around to correct you. Now imagine never having to worry about consequences. How would you have acted in such a place?"

Lea paused as he thought about all the trouble he and Isa had gotten into as kids followed by all of the things that they hadn't done out of fear of getting into serious trouble. "I see what you mean. Isa and I could be hellions when we wanted to be."

Xehanort laughed quietly. "I always got the impression that a lot of the trouble you two got up to was your idea, and that Isa was just going along with it."

Lea laughed himself. "Yeah, that sounds about right." He looked over in Xehanort's direction again. "What about you and Master Eraqus?"

"We had our moments, but Eraqus was very straight-laced, and he found the mere idea of disobeying Master Limahl's rules appalling. He did on occasion, but he always felt horrible about it afterward."

"And you?"

"I pushed Master a few times and tested his boundaries, something that horrified Eraqus, I might add, but Master held firm, and I quit pushing after a few years." Xehanort moved the laser off of Neverland and pointed it at a sparkling white spot that appeared to be quite far away.. "Anyway, that world over there is Olympus Coliseum. It is close enough to the sun that it warm nearly year round. Things cool off a small amount when it's on the winter side, but it doesn't have anything what we would call a winter there."

"How can you tell all of these worlds apart?"

"Some you can tell simply by their outward appearance. No other world sparkles quite like Olympus Coliseum, for example, while Radiant Garden shines the brightest out of all of them. Arendelle is so large that it's impossible to mistake it for something else.

"Some of the worlds have noticeable color to them. Deep Jungle is green in color, for example, while the Destiny Islands are blueish. With the rest of the worlds though, you will just have to memorize what they look like, though you can also look at their hearts to tell them apart."

Xehanort shut the laser off. "The point of all of this if for you to learn the worlds and their locations relative to each other, to make moving between them easier. Even if you settle on a single world, such a skill is still critically important, because you never know when you'll have to travel between worlds.

"The Lanes are very important here, because without them, fast travel between the worlds would be impossible. The fragments are all orbiting the sun at an average speed of 67,000 miles an hour, and no glider could hope to match that. The Lanes – somehow – allow you to move much quicker, traveling between worlds in minutes and hours instead of days and years."

"No one knows how the Lanes work?" Lea asked as he sat up.

"No. We know that they were already there before the Keyblade War started up, but science has not advanced enough here to try and explain them." The laser came back on and pointed at Radiant Garden. "Another important point is that the worlds stay roughly in the same positions relative to each other, so you will always see these worlds when sitting on this one. Occasionally, you might glimpse another, but that will be fairly uncommon."

"How do they keep from smacking into each other?" Lea asked.

"I always blamed Lord Asoth and Lady Lassierra and left it at that. Trying to figure out the physics of this system has driven more than a few astronomers mad over the years." The laser shut off a second time, and Lea heard clothing rustling as Xehanort stood up. "Anyway, that's enough for the night. If it's clear again tomorrow, we'll be out here again to work on this more. For now, we should get to sleep."

Lea nodded once himself and stood up. "Right."

 **OOOOOO**

The next day passed in the familiar pattern of keyblade training and magic, sprinkled with survival and cooking lessons. As the sun began to set, and after supper had been eaten and cleaned up after, Xehanort pointed out the red color of the western sky through the gaps in the stones in the west facing window frames.

"Red sky at night, sailor's delight." he said. "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. One of the few bits of lore I remember from the Destiny Islands, and strangely enough, it's rather useful."

Lea glanced at the red dots of light shining against the opposite wall. "How so?"

"This only works on worlds where the weather tracks west to east, mind you, and just why that old rhyme works has a different explanation in nearly every culture that has it, but generally, if you see a red sky at sunset, then it means that a high pressure weather system is moving in, which brings no precipitation. If you see red sky at sunrise, however, then the high pressure system is leaving the area, allowing a low pressure system, and the rain it brings with it, to follow in its wake."

Lea thought back on all the sunrises and sunsets he saw as a child growing up on Radiant Garden. "Huh, I'd never noticed that before."

"It's not always 100% reliable," Xehanort added. "Sometimes you can have a brilliant red sunset, and then wake up to a torrential downpour in the morning. Weather is strange like that, and I'm not convinced that humans will ever be able to predict it with full accuracy."

"Got any other useful folk tales from the Islands?"

Xehanort gave a rueful chuckle. "No, the only other things I remember from the Islands are its creation myth, and the story of Lord Xehanort."

Lea sat up from where he'd been leaning against the wall. " _Lord_ Xehanort?"

Xehanort leaned back into the chair. "Mmhmm." He gave Lea an aside glance. "Have you ever wondered why my name is so different than everyone else's from the islands?"

"Not really." Lea said as he shook his head. "I think Kairi might have said something about it once or twice though."

"Lord Xehanort is the islands' water god, the son of Asoth and Lassierra, and my mother named me after him because I resemble him greatly, or so I was told." Xehanort smiled faintly. "It was rather jarring to realize that if I hadn't fallen a second time and destroyed Radiant Garden, my title upon ascending the throne would have been 'Lord Xehanort', something that would have been considered sacrilege on the Destiny Islands."

"Really? Then why was your mom able to give you that name in the first place?"

"Only the so called 'main line' could get away with it. I am related to every single person on those islands, and yes, before you ask, that means _everyone_ , including Master Riku and Sora, but not Kairi, since she's originally from Radiant Garden.

"My hair and eye color have appeared randomly over the years in my direct ancestry. Magic also appeared frequently in that line. Only those who shared Lord Xehanort's appearance could use his name as their own. It was heavily frowned upon for anyone else to do the same. Master Riku's parents could have named him 'Xehanort' if they had wished, since he has the hair. "

Lea leaned back against the wall. "Weird."

Xehanort shrugged. "Just how it was."

"So how many Xehanorts came before you?"

"A few that I know of for sure, but I don't know exactly how many. I only know of those few because I actually broke into the town hall at one point and rifled through the records room for an hour or so before I was caught and run off."

"Really? You actually broke into a public building? That's something that not even Isa and I attempted." Xehanort looked at him. "Well, aside from the castle, I mean." Lea hasted to add.

"I wanted to know more of my family history, and no one was telling. My parents were dead, and any attempt to legally get to the records room was refused, so I took the only option available to me." Xehanort glanced out through a window. "Enough of that though. The sun will be down soon, and then we can move onto other things." He sat up straight in the chair and stretched. "We'll have to move on from here soon."

"How much longer are we going to be here?"

"Another day and night, most likely. I'm certain that Master Astrid's disappearance has been noted, and no doubt Master Beldinas has a furious search going on for her."

"Do you think he suspects you?"

"It's a good possibility, but it all depends on whether our appearance there was noted, and if Queen Elsa was informed. Master Astrid's companion did not appear to notice us at all, so any notice of us would have had to have come from the people in the tavern."

"Which is why you kept your hood up the entire time we were in there."

Xehanort nodded. "Yes. Of course, Master Beldinas knows that I am out and about, and he is fully aware that I know that he's after me, so he probably suspects me just for that."

"I wonder why they want your keyblade so damned much."

"I would also like to know that, but even if we were to get extremely lucky and capture Master Beldinas, I doubt the last technique I used would work on him."

Lea felt his face heat up. "Yeah, that was... awkward. I thought you were going to screw her right there with me in the room."

Xehanort gave a low chuckle. "If you hadn't been there, I probably would have. She was young, kept pretty well confined, and she had a massive crush on me. I could have dragged so much more out of her that way."

Lea stuck his fingers in his ears. "TMI! TMI!"

"Oh relax, Lea. I wasn't doing near as much as you're probably thinking. Just putting my hand on hers had her nearly panting like a dog."

"That's not what it sounded like."

Xehanort doused the fire then as the last vestiges of sunlight vanished from the sky, and even with his ears plugged, Lea could still hear him laughing.

 **OOOOOO**

More study of the visible worlds kept them up late, and they had another lie in the following morning. The day then passed with training and survival skills, followed by an early night.

"We're leaving here straight after breakfast." Xehanort said as they were readying for bed.

"Where are we going after that?" Lea asked as he kicked his boots off.

"To the opposite side of the sun to start with." Xehanort replied. "Braig is somewhere in that direction."

"How are you going to catch him, if he can sense you?"

"All I have to do is get close enough to him. Once I am within a certain distance, I can seize control and suppress his free will. Then it will simply be a matter of freeing him of my influence."

"Simple, you say."

Xehanort managed a half smile. "Indeed."

"Don't you mean, 'in- _deed._ '"

Xehanort heaved a sigh. "I wonder about Xemnas sometimes. Some of his behavior likely came from the remains of the amnesia that was still clinging to him, but honestly, I lived in Radiant Garden for three years before everything went to hell. Xemnas had no excuse for such an exaggerated way of moving and speaking."

"You speak as though you and Xemnas are two different people."

"In a way we are, just as you and Axel are different. Yet, in a way, we are the same, as Xemnas and Axel were just part of a whole."

Axel shook his head, flopped down on his bedroll, and pillowed his head on his hands. "This is so damned confusing. Why in the hell did you decide to split yourself in half anyway?"

Xehanort sat down on his own bed. "Two reasons. One, the Nobody could go about gathering power needed to corrupt others, while the Heartless could go about the same thing in a more direct route. Plus, with the heart free of the confines of the body, it was free to travel back and forth through time to reach my youngest self."

"Why in the hell did you go after him specifically anyway? He was just a kid."

"As were you and Isa at the time. Honestly Lea, do you think that I cared about my youngest self's thoughts and feelings over this? Besides, I once was him; I knew exactly what to say to entice him into it, and once he was in the future, I could made him do whatever song and dance I wanted, whether or not he was willing."

Lea sat up and stared at Xehanort at his matter-of-fact talk about turning his younger self. "But _why?_ What would make him so eager to jump through your hoops?"

"Easy." Xehanort laid down. "My Heartless didn't tell him the entire truth, and when you're all alone and everyone hates you, you will take whatever chance you can get to escape."

Xehanort didn't say another word, and after a minute or so, he started snoring quietly. Lea continued to stare at him until the fire died down to coals, with that last sentence spinning around in his head.

 **OOOOOO**

In the morning, breakfast was caught, prepared, cooked, and eaten in silence. Once everything was cleaned up, the two of them packed up and prepared to leave. Xehanort doused the fire with a thought, and Lea watched him as he took one long look around the empty cabin, with his eyes lingering on the rocking chair. He then shook his head and walked towards the door.

"Let's go, Lea."

 **OOOOOO**

The flight was once again made in silence, and as they rounded the sun, Xehanort suddenly stopped and held up his hand.

"What is it?" Lea asked as he stopped next to him.

"It's Braig." Xehanort said quietly. "He's very close."

"How close? Do you know where exactly he is?"

Xehanort looked over in the direction of a pale blue world that was off to their left. "Over there, it seems."

Lea looked at it for a second. "What world is that?"

"Te Ao."

"Te what?"

"Te Ao. That's the name of the world Braig is on. It's similar to the Destiny Islands; a salt water ocean with islands scattered across it, though it is much, much larger. It's also home to many gods, goddesses, and from what I've heard, at least one demi-god."

Xehanort looked at the world for a bit longer and muttered, "I do not want to deal with this today." He then shook his head. "Let's go."

Lea gave him a puzzled look as he flew off towards the world. What was that about? He stared after Xehanort as he receded into the distance, and then he shook his own head and followed him.

 **OOOOOO**

The world was hot.

The wave of humid heat slapped into Lea like a wall of water as they exited the Lanes Between over a rolling ocean that went in all directions as far as he could see. The sun shone down with an intensity that he'd never encountered before, and its heat seemed to beat down on him.

"Welcome to the tropics." Xehanort said when Lea complained about the heat.

"The Destiny Islands weren't this hot. There was at least a breeze!"

"Were you standing on the beach?"

"Yeah." Lea scratched at his head. "What has that go to do with it?"

Xehanort paused and let Lea catch up with him. "Oh come now. I know you had to have gone to the beaches on Radiant Garden, am I right?"

"Yeah, and?"

Xehanort gave him a warning look. "Watch the attitude."

"Right, sorry."

Xehanort stared at him for a few more seconds before he turned and looked out over the ocean.

"The movement of the waves towards the shore," he began to explain, "creates a constant breeze at sea level. That is why you felt cooler on the Destiny Islands. Here, we are well above sea level and quite a ways from any shore, so we do not get that breeze. Trust me, the Destiny Islands are just as hot as this world when you're away from the water."

"Can't we go lower, closer to the water?" Lea asked as he resisted the urge to yank his coat off.

"No," Xehanort replied as he turned back around and began a slow, leisurely flight towards a long, mountainous island that was just visible in the far distance.

Lea hurried to catch up. "Why not! I'm dying up here!"

"Then take your coat off; just be prepared to deal with the sunburn later. Since we are not on a shore, there is no guarantee that there will be any moving breeze below, and the, admittedly slight, but still possible, chance of a rogue wave appearing without warning and slapping you off of your glider makes being closer to the water without a boat or ship somewhat dangerous."

"Do I want to know what a rogue wave is exactly?" Lea asked as he took his pack off long enough to shuck his coat and drape it over the frame of his glider. He then reshouldered the pack and wondered if he should just cave in and ask Xehanort about adding the space expansion to his coat pockets.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Xehanort replied. "A larger than normal wave that appears without warning. They are more common during stormy weather, but they can happen anytime, even on a relatively calm day like today"

"Can't you prevent that, as a water elemental?"

"I could try, but there are those with a far more powerful water affinity than I could ever have, and needless to say they all have reason to be more than a little angry with me."

"But you weren't worried when we went to see Tia Dalma in that canoe, were you?"

"There, we had no choice, as I told you back there. You have to go up the river to find her. Here, however, we have no other option." Xehanort gave Lea an irritated look, and Lea returned it with one of confusion. What was he so aggravated over?

The rest of the flight was made in silence, and Lea breathed a sigh of relief as they came in for a landing on a small clearing right up against the beach. A stiff breeze blew in from the ocean, and Lea faced into it with a smile as he dismissed his keyblade and dropped his pack.

"You can savor the breeze later, Lea." Xehanort said. "Go ahead and get yourself a camp set up, and once you've done that, we'll go foraging for a few extra things to make it easier to keep yourself fed."

Lea nodded and knelt down next to his pack to grab his tent when the rest of Xehanort's words percolated through. "Wait, are you leaving?"

"For a day or so, yes."

"Why? Where are you going?"

"To a place that is far too dangerous for you. I don't like going there, but that's where Braig appears to be hiding, and I won't be able to concentrate on finding him if I'm having to constantly defend you, so you're going to stay here and wait." Xehanort turned and looked out to sea for a moment.

"Is there anything here that will bother me?" Lea asked as he looked back at the thick jungle behind him. Butterflies were fluttering about, birds were singing, and the palm fronds and tall grasses rustled in the breeze. The entire place seemed bright and peaceful, but Lea still shivered as he looked back at it.

"No, there is nothing here that will harm you. Now get your tent set up so we can go foraging. Make sure you anchor it well, to prevent it from blowing away."

It didn't take long for the tent to be put up, and once it was up and firmly anchored to a tree and a large boulder, Xehanort had Lea put his coat back on, and then he led him into the trees.

"While being in a tropical world does have its dangers in the form of predators and diseases," Xehanort explained as they walked up a slope away from the beach, "edible plants are numerous and varied. If you know what to look for, you can always have a good meal in a world such as this one. You have the ocean for fish and other seafood, and there are plenty of edible plants about. Some are native, others were introduced before the world was shattered. Some can be eaten raw, some have to be prepared in some way first, but either way, I'm sure that we will find plenty to keep you fed while I'm away."

 **OOOOOO**

Xehanort certainly hadn't been joking, Lea thought as they returned to his tent with their finds. Their haul included bananas, ("These are different from bananas you've eaten before in that they must be cooked first. Do not eat them raw.") pineapples, ("Not native to this area; likely transplanted here before the Keyblade War.") taro, ("The corns can be eaten roasted, baked, or boiled, while the leaves and stems can be eaten after boiling them twice to remove a bitter flavor. Again, do not eat any part of this plant raw, as it's very poisonous that way.") breadfruit, sweet potatoes, and purple yams.

"I can't believe we were able to find so much." Lea said as he stared at the piled fruit, vegetables, and greens.

"Tropical worlds are always good for vast amounts of food." Xehanort replied. "It's almost as though nature is compensating for the sheer amount of poisonous plants that are also common on tropical worlds. Moreso, this particular island is special, hence why you're going to stay on it while I try and chase down Braig."

"And why do I need this much again?"

Xehanort waved for Lea to follow him down to the beach. "Because I don't know how long this will take. Braig can sense me, as I've said before, and there's no way to know for sure how he'll react to my presence. He might just up and leave the world, and if he does that, I intend to follow him if I can. I don't want to stay away too long, but if I think I have a good chance of catching him, then I am going to take it."

"You also said that you'll be able to suppress his free will when you get close enough. Aren't you going to try that?"

"If I can, yes, but if he's where I think he is, then it will be too dangerous to do so. I want Braig freed, not dead." Xehanort stopped at the water's edge and turned to face Lea. "Now come here. Fishing in the ocean isn't too different from fishing in a lake or river, but I -"

Lea listened to Xehanort, but he found his attention pulled away when the water behind the Keyblade Master began to act... strange.

The waves slowed, somehow, and in one particular spot, they receded, leaving the wet sand bare. Lea stared as the blue-green water rose up into a column with sloping sides, and the top of it bent over, almost like a head of sorts.

"Don't tell me." Xehanort said. "The water?"

Lea nodded absently, still staring past him at the ocean. "What the hell is that?"

"Oceanus," Xehanort grumbled as he turned to face the water, "Do you have to do this today?"

A jet of water erupted from the waves and sprayed him directly in the face.

Xehanort spun around to put his back to the water, as his face twisted up in a wordless snarl, just in time for another jet to spray the back of his head. "I do not want to deal with this today!"

A wave rushed up suddenly behind him and knocked his feet out from under him. Xehanort hit the water with a splash, and he let out a string of what Lea was certain were curse words in other languages as the water column bobbed its "head" and shook itself, like it was laughing.

"Wait," Lea said as he felt his mouth curling up into a smile, "is this the real reason you didn't want to fly close to the water earlier?" He chuckled when the water nodded emphatically.

"Part of it." Xehanort snarled as he got to his feet. Water streamed from his hair and coat. "Oceanus and I have never been anything close to friends, and my activities before and after Radiant Garden only made things worse in that regard." Another large wave rolled up behind him and swept over him, while missing Lea entirely. "Oh, for the love of -!"

Lea cackled with laughter as Xehanort was dragged off shore and out to sea, cursing the entire way. He started to swim back to shore, only for another wave to pounce on him and drag him further out. A second column of water erupted under him, flinging him into the air, but before he could come back down, another wave tossed him to the side. He landed with a splash that had Lea wincing, and no sooner had his head bobbed above the surface than another wave crashed down on him, pushing him under.

Lea felt his laughter die off as he watched. "Hey!" he called. "Don't drown him! I kinda need him alive!"

The water looked at him as Xehanort was again tossed into the air and slapped around by a large wave, and it tilted its head to the side, like it was confused. Xehanort was thrown high up into the air, and he landed face down with a loud slap that made Lea cringe. The water "laughed" again.

The sunlight brightened, and Lea held up a hand to shade his face as the water stilled. It looked at Xehanort floating still on the surface, and then it seemed to look up towards the sun for a moment. It bowed its head, and then it seemed to heave a sigh. A wave rolled up under Xehanort and pushed him towards shore before flinging him onto the beach.

Xehanort landed on his right side, facing away from Lea, with a spray of water from his sodden clothes and hair, and he did not move.

"Uhh..." Lea cast a glance back at the ocean, but whoever Oceanus was, they had seemingly left, and it was only him and Xehanort. "Um, Xehanort?"

Xehanort didn't respond, and Lea took a cautious step forward. "Hey, wake up. You okay?" Was he breathing?

Lea edged closer. "Master Xehanort?" He swallowed. "I need you alive; don't die on me here. Xehanort? C'mon, this isn't funny! Master Xehanort!"

Xehanort moved then, sucking a deep breath and coughing up seawater.

"Heal," he rasped, and he pushed himself up on his shaking arms as the green magic washed over him. He coughed again, and then he dragged himself to his feet and began to stagger back towards Lea's tent, still coughing. Lea hesitated, and then he followed.

Xehanort slumped down to the ground under a large palm tree, and Lea could hear him wheezing as he caught his breath.

"Are you all right?"

"As well as can be expected since I was nearly drowned out there." Xehanort said without looking up at him.

"But you said... you're a water elemental."

"And Oceanus is a thrice-damned _god_ , Lea. No human, no matter how powerful, can stand up to that. When the living embodiment of the sea itself wants you dead, only another god can hope to save you." Xehanort coughed again and leaned back against the tree. "If Braig wasn't here, I would have never gone near this world. Oceanus can be found on any world, but this is one of his favorites."

Lea sat down on the soft grass nearby. "So Oceanus moves between the worlds?"

Xehanort nodded as his dripping hair hung down in front of his face. "All of the gods can, but most stick to certain ones, where their worshippers are. Only a few move frequently." Xehanort took a deep breath that was let out as a sigh, and then he stood up. "I need to rest before I go after Braig."

He reached into a pocket and pulled out a tent. He popped it up next to Lea's but didn't bother to anchor it. "My own weight will be enough to hold onto it while I sleep for a few hours. While I'm asleep, keep yourself occupied, but no cliff climbing and no swimming. I can't risk you getting injured and being unable to heal yourself while I'm asleep. Is that understood?"

Lea nodded. "Yes, sir."

Xehanort took his coat off and draped it over a nearby tree, and then he kicked his boots off and turned them upside down to drain before climbing into his tent. He closed the flap behind him, and Lea turned his head and looked out over waves as they rolled endlessly towards the shore.


End file.
